Maelstrom 20 Conversations Part 4
by illmatar
Summary: This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! Violence, humor, romance, and a lot of cannon twisting history. Matrix, Quintissons, Jabez, and Decepticons Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod, Arcee Springer, Rodimus Prime, Spike, Carl
1. Chapter 1

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part A

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Maelstrom 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Hoping you Like Me Too

Part A

"Spike wasn't happy being left behind my love," Lancer said, lounging on the shuttle's armrest. Rodimus, in Autobot form, was piloting and patiently ignoring Springer's helpful back-seat flying. They'd been en-route for about eight hours.

"Yeah well, I already saw Spike's family destroyed in our universe so he can sulk at home and kiss my shiny butt. If something happens when we are gone that's Op's guilt, not mine."

"Are we there yet?"

"No we aren't...quite bugging me about it or I'm throwing you in a life-pod to float aimlessly in space until the Junkions find your frozen impatient ass," Rodimus said.

"I'm just trying to find out when we'll get there," came the sullen reply. "I can't see the instruments from down here."

"Remember that the next time I'm complaining about the same thing," Marissa grumbled. "These shuttles are not human friendly at all."

"OK...we'll recommend modifications...but I still want to know when we will get there. Who are the Junkions?"

"MAGNUS!" Rodimus snapped. "My daughters are more patient. We still have two more hours. This crate is almost as slow as Spike's computer...and nevermind the Junkions or I really am gonna take you home."

After two more hours of cooped up griping and antics they approached their destination with Rodi's usual frustrating caution - meaning they circled the area several times and did esoteric scans with the Jabez scanner before he would consent to take them within visual range.

Magnus turned to Hot Rod, "you know how I'm always telling you to be more careful?"

"Yeah?"

"Well...do that, but not to this extreme!" Magnus ordered.

"Ignore him Hot Rod," Rodimus said.

Magnus grumbled.

"Mags, if we run into a Quint fleet I'm gonna dangle you out the back hatch as bait," Rodimus informed him. Prime was running out of patience.

Magnus subsided.

X

X

X

When they finally did approach, the base appeared as abandoned as their scanners indicated. The Quints typical, twisting spires jutted up out of a dense jungle canopy where they weren't already covered with vines. The forest was obviously taking back the base, overwhelming it inch by inch. None of them were sorry to see Quint handiwork overrun by greenery. Magnus' impatience was suddenly replaced by anxiety. His time as a gladitorial slave rarely involved jaunts outside, but the architecture was distinct enough to raise his hackles. The broken spires rose in corkscrew twists until they abruptly ended in scorched wreckage.

"There's an older structure underneath," Rodimus said.

"You sure it isn't just a Quint basement?" Magnus asked.

"Nope...too many angles and sharp turns for our footless friends to be happy with. I'm scanning deeper...oh."

"Rodi? What is it?' Marissa asked.

"Well. I'm not entirely sure. There's a lot of collapsed tunnels down there, but the older stuff seems kind of hexagon-shaped," Rodi answered grimly. At home this would have gotten a big reaction. These people just blinked at him.

"If spirals make Quints happy because they can't navigate angles easily, then hexagons do something for Jabez," Lancer whispered.

"It's the crystals," Rodi whispered. "They base everything off the structure of the crystals."

"You don't know that love," Lancer said.

"Yes I do. I just can't prove it!"

Lancer looked down at Marissa and made a disgusted face. Marissa refrained from laughing at Rodi's defensive assertions.

He was focused on his scan. "There's a series of natural caverns underneath the lowest foundations. I suppose if the crystals are natural objects the Jabez modified then we are most likely to find them there, but we'll have to go down through the base to get there. The foundation is solid bedrock until you get about 20 meters down, but if we cut through the caverns might collapse."

"Looks like we're in for a hike," Arcee said.

X

X

X

Rodimus circled a few times until he found the landing platform. They could barely make out a wide, flat expanse under all the overgrowth, but they could see that it was raised above the forest floor to accommodate the Quints tall, contorted cruisers. There were six slots for such ships. All were empty. Lancer startled the others by activating her exo-suit, which formed around her as she jumped down off the armrest. Manning the lasers, she expertly cleared them a landing zone. Once down, Rodimus kept them on-board for a few minutes with the engines running and Lancer's hands on the triggers. When nothing swarmed out of base to assault them, he nodded to Lancer. She went outside alone in her suit, with the cloak activated. Those on board couldn't see anything and they all fidgeted with repressed adrenaline while she scouted.

After what seemed like an eternity, Rodimus shut down the engines and led his humanized friends outside.

Stepping off the ramp, EDC issue blasters drawn, Magnus and the other humanized Autobots felt the effects of human stress. Sounds from the jungle seemed painfully sharp, the crunch of blaster vegetation underfoot felt strangely distinct too. The scent of it would come back to them in memory at odd moments for the rest of their lives. Rodimus towered over them and they were suddenly clear on why so many humans seemed so...relieved... when the Autobots arrived to help.

"Aren't you going to cloak?" Springer asked him.

Rodimus shook his head and didn't answer the triple changer.

Hot Rod saw Springer frowning and pulled on Springer's shirt to get his attention.

"He's the target," Hot Rod whispered in Springer's ear. "Lancer stays out of sight and he draws any fire away from us."

Springer frowned at Hot Rod and then shrugged. "He's got the paint job for it."

"Shh!" Marissa ordered.

"Hang back," Rodi told them. He approached the door and scanned it with an Autobot sized version of his Jabez scanner. Detecting no life-forms on the other side, he switched it to look for anything that might be a trap. The door seemed clean, so he activated it, noting as he did that there were signs of an old battle all over the door. It responded half-heartedly and didn't open more than a few inches. He slipped his fingers into the crack and pulled them apart with effort.

Musty air rushed out at them, causing the humans to cough. Rodimus peered inside and then slipped sideways through the hanger doors. The inside was covered with dust, leaf litter, and dead Sharkticons. All of the 24 parking platforms for Quint shuttles were empty. The dust moved slightly where Lancer was walking ahead of them, but he didn't focus on that or call attention to it in any way. He signaled the others to follow him in and he went over to the nearest carcass to inspect it.

"Blasted," he diagnosed unnecessarily. Half the things face was missing and what was left was scorched. "Looks like this place was abandoned after a nice fight. I'm trying really hard to feel bad about that too."

"No you aren't," Foul Play said. Rodi grinned at her.

"Stay behind me," he warned them.

"This place is empty," Springer argued.

"Right. Maybe I should clarify. Stay behind me or go back to the ship," Rodimus said lightly.

"Yessir," Springer said. He was getting used to the fact that Rodimus made his threats in the most conversational voice he could manage.

Rodi paused and let them stand there a few minutes while the tiny dust clouds moved around the hanger, past every nook, cranny, and carcass. Finally he approached the next door and opened it as he had the last. The corridors on the other side were much darker than the hanger, which had a few holes in the ceiling where light filtered through the vines.

Rodimus turned on his headlights and the little dust clouds went on ahead. They quickly disappeared into the darkness and the others solemnly followed. The whole group was quiet...for a while.

"This place is a maze," Marissa complained in a whisper, after about a half hour of walking. "Every corridor looks identical."

"Quints have no imagination if they aren't making money or causing pain," Magnus informed her. "Decorations probably just snag on their tentacles."

Marissa snickered at the thought, but she could see Magnus was very tense. She took his hand.

They walked and walked, going round and round, deeper into the base. Rodi never explained why they went into some rooms and not others but they saw that the dust had been disturbed at every turn on the way down. Once in a while they found a dead Sharkticon, and even a few dead Quints, but mostly it was just one, long dizzying road down.

Occasionally, they would stop while Rodimus paused to examine on side chamber or another. The rooms varied in configuration and potential atmosphere, but there was nothing indicating either scientific research or warfare.

It was not what they expected at all.

"Rodi?" Hot Rod asked.

"Hmm?"

"Can we talk to each other?" the younger twin inquired wistfully.

"Translation: My feet hurt and I'm bored," Rodimus observed.

"Asshole," Hot Rod said.

"I take it that I'm right then?" Rodimus smirked.

"Can we talk or not?" Hot Rod pressed, refusing to give Rodi the satisfaction. "I feel like I'm in one of those dreams where I'm trying to get somewhere and the hallway keeps getting longer in front of me."

"You need to keep alert," Rodimus told him.

"How? I can't seem to focus on everything and nothing for this long. There's not even anything to look at! How do you do it?"

The rest of the group made faces and shifted their weight. Most of them were feeling the same way, but they weren't about to admit it.

"Practice," Rodimus informed his twin unhelpfully. "This base is great for it. We're about to get into the lower levels anyway. Things will get more...interesting down here. Quints make a maze of their upper levels to make it harder for spies and invaders to find their way to the real action."

"You sound like you've done this too many times Rodimus," Arcee noted.

"I explored my share of bases when we exterminated them," Rodimus reminded her grimly, "but this one is different. It's bigger than any of the ones I've dealt with and the corridors are more elaborate. There are a lot of meeting rooms and guest suites to accommodate various species of company. They either used this to entertain a lot of clients at once or they had something else drawing crowds. I've never seen anything quite like it. It has the feeling of a big hotel! I've seen rooms I can tell were designed for about eight distinct species of alien....even Sories and they're full aquatic! If this place is meant to handle all of these room being occupied at once, I'm at a loss. In my universe the Quints were always careful to outnumber their suckers...I mean customers."

Magnus froze and scowled to himself. He was suddenly even more uneasy. Of all the group, he was the only one who's tension was steadily increasing as they walked rather than being blunted by monotony. He wasn't planning on saying anything but both Marissa and Rodimus noticed his face and looked at him.

"What?" he barked.

Marissa's eyebrows puckered in concern. Rodimus just arched one. Magnus considered defiance but knew he was outnumbered. His shoulders slumped.

"I can think of one time they encouraged crowds," he muttered.

Rodimus turned fully to face him and shook his head. "Gladiator games...I'm not thinking obviously. You think they might have had an arena here?"

Magnus shrugged, and Marissa looked worried.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come," she said.

"I wouldn't want to be left behind," Magnus told her. "I would have followed on my own if I had been. I need to be here. I'll be OK."

"OK Big Guy," Marissa said, "but don't forget to ask for help if you need it!"

Magnus nodded. Rodimus looked at him for another minute and then went on without a word. Magnus took Marissa's hand again and made distracted note of the fact that all of his troops closed ranks around him without a word.

It made something in his wounded heart glow with pride. Once he would have been ashamed to confess his anxiety for fear they would reject him. Instead, they moved in to support him automatically and he suddenly KNEW what Marissa had been telling him all along. They were his friends. It wasn't fear that moved them. It wasn't orders. It wasn't even the Autobot code to protect the weak. It was respect. It was loyalty. It was love.

It didn't eliminate the wounds. It didn't completely destroy the shuddering child in him that felt worthless and alone...but it went a long, long way to making things better. He rode a wave of relief that made him quiver slightly. Magnus wondered, as he felt the energy he had been wasting hating himself flood into healthier channels, if this is what Rodimus had felt when Lancer destroyed Vector Sigma's sadistic brain-washing.

All the while, Rodimus' headlights stabbed into the darkness and took them deeper.

Finally they reached an area which was not maze-like, but clearly a labyrinth. Rodimus moved forward, unfazed, which would have been impressive except that there were arrows blasted into the walls. Whatever people had invaded this place had taken time to solve the labyrinth.

"How do we know this will really lead us below?" Foul Play asked.

Rodi smiled, "Because I have fore-knowledge."

"Because you have a woman on the brain," Springer said.

"Well, there is that," Rodimus said mildly.

"Thank God for that!" Marissa exclaimed. "A spiral maze! I'm dizzy!"

"We're almost there," Rodimus said, steering them towards the curve on the right. They came upon an open doorway as they rounded the turn. It was flanked by a large heap of dead Sharks on either side.

Marissa shook her head at the Quint sneakiness. "The maze keeps right on going. I bet when this door is closed there's no sign of it and you just walk on by looking for the end."

"Yeah. It's a dead end too I bet," Hot Rod muttered. "If you know where the door is, you don't go. If you do go you don't belong looking in the first place. There's probably nasty surprises all over after this point."

"Ah, Grasshopper. You learn to think like your enemy," Rodimus said. "Well done."

"Yeah? Great...but my brain feels like it needs a shower," Hot Rod said.

"Quit thinking about Foul Play then," Arcee snickered.

The darkness in the doorway hissed at them. "SHH! You're voices echo all the way down the corridors!" Lancer's voice came at them from within the dark hallway.

If she wanted quiet she didn't get it. Everyone but Rodimus jumped and yelped in surprise. She was right though, they could hear their startled voices echoing over and over down the shaft before them.

Rodimus smacked himself in the face. "Amateurs," he whispered in disgust. Why did you come back up Love? he sent to his mate while the others complained at him.

I don't like the feel of it down there, she responded vaguely.

Anything in particular? he sent back, concerned.

No...but I'm not going to scout up so far. I want to be close if you need me.

I always need you, but are you sure that's for the best? What's wrong?

Just a feeling, she said, annoyed with herself. She was nervous, and she had no real reason.

Yeah...well. The last time I down-played one of your feelings Unicron made a play for our Magnus. Stay close until you feel better about it or something happens.

They skirted the heap of Sharkticons by the doorway, making note that most of them were of the higher functioning sort that could actually think for themselves.

Down below was another spiraling maze but this time the corridors seemed older and more used. The rooms off the side paths were laboratories and testing facilities rather than luxurious suites for plasma breathers and ultra-high gravity aliens.

Lancer remained invisible and noiseless, but Marissa noted the dust clouds returned often...as if she was circling them. A glance at Rodi indicated no change in his demeanor but he slowed their pace even more. Even Arcee was fidgeting impatiently whenever he stopped them. Magnus' eyes jerked back and forth, and he was exercising his new skulking skills to their maximum. He took to rapping Springer's skull with his knuckles every time the triple changer's feet made a sound.

This happened often. In the dead silence of this spiraling tomb their very breathing seemed amplified.

As they went deeper, the signs of battle grew denser. More bodies of both Quints and Sharks littered the halls. Most had been pushed off to the side by someone, but in a few cases, Rodimus moved heaps of corpses out of the way so that his smaller companions wouldn't have to climb the sheared and twisted metal of long dead defenders.

Marissa in particular was glad of his help. Not only did she have a better sense than her companions of how deep such shards of steel would cut, but the segmented carapaces of the Sharkticons reminded her of roaches. Their dead, shattered, orbish optics did too. She shivered, and skirted the corpses as gingerly as she could manage.

Magnus on the other hand seemed almost mesmerized by the dead. He stood before one heap of bodies while the others filed by and lingered as they moved on. Marissa was just about to ask him what was wrong when he grunted and caught up to Rodi's little sphere of light.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"I like them better that way," he remarked with a smile.

Taken off guard by the smile and the comment, Marissa snorted with laughter and threw her hands up over her mouth when it started to echo.

Rodimus paused and turned to look at them. Tall as he was and with the headlights pointing ahead of him, they couldn't make out much of his face. Just those glowing optics. It seemed wrong that they were standard Autobot blue at the moment. Though they couldn't see his mouth, his optics smiled and Marissa realized he'd heard Magnus' comment as well as her suppressed giggles.

X

X

X

After about five hours of steady walking, Rodimus took mercy on their feet and came to a stop right in the hallway.

"Rest. Eat a little...and drink," he murmured.

No one complained about the break but Hot Rod had questions as usual.  
"Why here?" he wondered at his twin. "Wouldn't one of the side rooms hide us better and be more defensible? Oh...and before you tell me to figure it out I've already thought about it and I don't understand."

Rodimus smiled. "To be honest Hot Rod I debated, so you are right that this is not clearly the best choice. I leaned this way for a few reasons. First, anything that lives down here probably doesn't rely much on light. Therefore it either hears well or feels vibrations. Either way, it knows we're here and I prefer to have an unobstructed view so we have a chance of noticing it. I also prefer to have a clear line of escape right now."

"Why...do you really think something is down here? We haven't seen any disturbed dust or heard anything," Hot Rod noted.

"Well...all of the empirical evidence is that we're alone," Rodimus said with a sigh.

Magnus and Hot Rod looked at each other. They were both getting familiar enough with Rodi to know when he was holding out on them.

"But..." Magnus prompted.

"But Lancer is nervous," Rodimus confessed.

"Lancer?" Hot Rod asked.

"Nervous?" Magnus added. "I didn't know Lancer and nervous went in the same sentence except in reference to her effect on everyone else."

"Hah Hah," Rodimus answered. "Look...it is nothing she can pin-point, so I suppose there is always the possibility she is just nervous because she is, but something is jangling her web. Let me put it this way. We may never know how much of her awareness of the world filters through her energy sense. She usually not conscious of anything outside of her immediate area or something blatantly out of place - like say an electrical storm or a huge power surge. Mostly she just ignores it, the way you ignore the temperature in a room unless it becomes uncomfortable, right? Well...something is making her uncomfortable. She doesn't know what it is but she doesn't like it. It is making her nervous and my friend if it is making HER nervous you and I should probably be ready to run for our lives. The last time she got this way, I put it down to moodiness and let me tell you I was almost very sorry and very dead."

"I'm surprised she wasn't the one that killed you," Magnus said.

"Oh, I wanted to," a voice from the dark quipped, "but I needed him to change diapers."

In spite of many personal vows not to yelp this time, most of the group gasped in surprise. Lancer appeared in their midst, first in her gruesome suit, but morphing out of it as she walked up to them. She sat down next to her mate and leaned on his metal leg.

"Find anything?" Magnus asked.

"More labs, more bodies, and another hidden doorway to a deeper level. Looks like the real fight was there. That's why we're resting here. The true purpose of this base was probably the next level down. There is a major battlefield up ahead and we need to be alert just to navigate it safely." She sighed and took the water and the energy bar Foul Play offered her with a smile. "Thanks. The suit is taking a lot out of me today."

"You didn't find any energy sources to recharge that thing with?" Rodimus frowned. On missions like this his mate was a real scavenger for power to keep her reserves high for battle.

"Nothing. Either whoever took down this place drained it dry or something else is at work. The whole place is shriveled up like a prune, in terms of ambient energy that is. There's nothing...not even in the back-up batteries in the Sharks, and those hold power for years even after they're dead. These guys were blasted, not drained, but none of their weapons have any charge, the corpses are barren, none of the lab equipment has any juice. I don't like it. All the evidence says the original attack was a real tussle, but it looks like a fast raid to me. I've done enough fast raids, so hopefully I know what the aftermath looks like. Maybe I'm wrong, but the labs are stocked with chemicals; they haven't been ransacked. The rooms upstairs weren't tossed or searched that much, and yet there isn't a drop of energy anywhere."

"What could do something like that?" Arcee wondered, frowning.

"Well, me, for starters," Lancer said. "But I would have to either go room by room or do a major draw but that's risking overload."

"Overload? I thought you could handle almost anything," Springer said.

"When did we ever say that?" Lancer asked. "I can handle a lot of juice, especially if I have somewhere to shunt it if my own reserves are full, but there are limits to how much I can take. I can even give myself seizures if I can't control the current."

"Oh," Springer said. He thought about it for a second, then added, "Ouch."

"Right. Ouch. Unlikely to happen here though. Like I said, not a spark to be found. Whatever did it is very...thorough."

"OK," Hot Rod remarked, "I am officially nervous too."

"Welcome aboard," Springer said, making a face at his young friend. "Took you long enough. All this walking in the dark through dead bodies doesn't make an impression at all does it?"

"I was too busy trying to work out what happened to be nervous before now," Hot Rod explained.

Marissa laughed, and pointed at Rodimus. "In case you have any lingering doubts about the growing up issue!"

X

X

X

They took about an hour of rest, during which Lancer gave every appearance of actually napping against her mate's leg. Marissa found it funny that while Rodimus clearly never relaxed his guard as he scanned the halls around them, he put his hand over Lancer while she rested. Arcee caught Marissa's eye and they both suppressed the urge to giggle.

Unlike his oblivious twin who was sharing a similar moment with Foul Play, Rodimus was on to them immediately and turned to face them the instant they started snuffling and snickering.

He frowned.

"Don't be like that Rodi. You guys are just cute," Arcee explained quietly. Marissa nodded.

"It's not cute. I'm worried. She's too tired this early in the mission. Something is really wrong," Rodimus confided.

The girls exchanged looks again.

"Is she alright?" Marissa inquired.

Rodi nodded. "Yes, I think so....so far."

"Look, I know you're concerned," Marissa informed him, "But you guys are still cute." She and Arcee sounded a bit better this time because they just laughed quietly instead of forcing it through their noses.

Lancer opened her eyes and stuck her tongue out at them. "I resent being associated with the word cute," she said gravely....then she grinned and got to her feet. She reactivated her decidedly un-cute suit, disappeared and went ahead of them. They followed.

Around a few more winding turns and intersections they came upon another secret door with carcasses all around it. The signs of battle were by far the most intense they'd seen. Scores of Sharkticons of all types and even a few Quints with weapons in their tentacles were strewn everywhere. These bodies had been roughly shoved out of the way instead of stacked. Rodimus spent half an hour clearing a path humans could safely navigate. He had to carry the bodies quite a distance to get them out of the way. At the door there was no room to stack them.

Once past the doorway, he had more bodies to move. The hall was jammed. Finally he sighed and pulled an Autobot sized Katana-style sword from sub-space and began slicing and moving just the limbs that got in the way. He reminded Marissa of a jungle-guide hacking at foliage with a machete...except the foliage was actually Sharkticon chunks. This time she suppressed laughter because it felt just a wee bit hysterical...as though if she started stopping would be out of the question.

The air and the walls were noticeably colder than the rest of the building. Foul Play shuddered and drew closer to Hot Rod. Springer walked with his hands in his armpits. Arcee stalked with that intense look she sometimes got, but the hand that held the weapon in front of her shivered.

Magnus trailed deliberately behind the others. He kept looking over his shoulder as though expecting to be attacked from behind. His face was ashen and covered in a faint sheen of sweat. Marissa kept looking back as well, but to check on him. She didn't like the way he stared around him, eyes wide and darting at shadows. It reminded her of the way his eyes rolled so frantically when he had a flashback.

"Magnus? How are you holding up Big Guy?" she asked.

"Marissa...maybe it's just coincidence...but...but this place...It's hard. I'm smaller... it's dark...but this place FEELS familiar."

Rodimus stopped and turned to face them as he had before. This time his optics were green and they illuminated his frown quite clearly. "You think this might be where they held you?" Rodi asked bluntly.

"I don't know...maybe," Magnus confessed.

Rodimus turned fully to face them. His headlights blinded Magnus for a moment and the City Commander suddenly knew he was under inspection. He tried to pull himself together.

"Magnus...I know you want to be part of this, but if it is too much you have to tell me. We will go back to the surface if we have to. You'll be safe enough on the shuttle and you can put it in orbit if something happens."

"I'm OK for now," Magnus assured him. He knew Rodimus was serious and respected that Rodi would make a command decision to send him back if it looked like Magnus might become a liability. Magnus had never been more determined not to be a liability.

Rodimus studied him dispassionately, noting the pallor, the sweat, and the firm press of Magnus lips. Magnus met his optics and waited. Hot Rod stepped up behind his uncle and stared at Rodi too. Rodimus ignored his twin, examined Magnus a moment longer, and then turned without a word and kept going.

Hot Rod snorted as they resumed walking.

Magnus took some comfort in instructing his nephew. It brought him back to the present.

"You weren't going to challenge him if he decided to send me up were you?" Magnus asked his nephew.

"Hell yeah I was," Hot Rod replied.

"You shouldn't. If I freak out down here it puts everyone at risk. A good commander needs to keep his emotions out of decisions like that," Magnus told Hot Rod sternly.

"I know. I wasn't going to argue about that. IF you were going to freak out you'd have to go, but you won't," Hot Rod said with perfect assurance.

"You don't know that," Magnus said.

Hot Rod met his eyes and gave him a weird, old smile that looked completely out of place on his young face. "Yes...I do," he said. Still smiling, he rubbed Foul Play's cold hand and kept walking.

Magnus was stopped in his tracks. He stood there, with his head cocked to one side, looking after his nephew.

Marissa waited for a minute, then came back to take him by the hand and lead him forward.

She grinned and answered the look of complete confusion on Magnus face. "Well Mr. City Commander, I guess that makes at least two of us that have complete faith in you."

Magnus smiled, tentatively at first, then shrugged and grinned. They walked fast to catch up with Rodi's headlights.

Continued in Part B


	2. Chapter 2

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part B

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part B

Continued from Part A

Rodimus steered them away from most of the side labs, although they could see the faint stirrings in the dust which indicated Lancer's passing.

"Why don't we go in there?" Springer asked him at one point. They were ignoring a large, important looking room.

"Because what's in there will only make you angry," Rodimus said. "It's a lab, but the work tables all have restraints on them." His voice was even colder than the air around them.

Springer took a page from Kup's book and cursed the Quints quietly under his breath for about five minutes straight. Every word made a visible puff of fog from his mouth.

They came upon more bodies and one of them brought Magnus up short.

"It can't be! Marissa! I KNOW that Quint! Look! The one with the missing face! He was one of my worst tormentors. It's...so hard to put this in words. I had...no words when I knew him. I remember him... doing... things to me...to some of the others. They would argue with each other. Most of the subjects died from what he did to them. It was like he was trying to blend them...with other things. Organic things. I... remember one time... he kept pointing at me...but the Quint in charge of the gladiators wouldn't let him have me. It was the one time I was glad to see that bastard who kept making me fight. I don't know what happened to this one's face. He was gone for a while and then he showed up wearing this mask. I can't say I was sorry he was maimed. Only that whatever did it didn't finish the job."

Magnus looked long and hard at the corpse on the floor. He kicked it. "I'm glad you're dead you twisted piece of slag! I wish it had been me! There'd be smaller pieces of you I promise!" Then he turned to Marissa and hugged her, sobbing quietly.

Hot Rod whirled on his twin but found Rodimus shaking his head and smiling sadly.

"Peace, Little Brother," Rodimus said, holding his hands up as if in surrender. "I'm not sending him back for this. This is healthy. He's not endangering anyone or himself. You think I don't know the difference?"

"Just checking," Hot Rod muttered.

Lancer interrupted them by coming up out of the depths and de-cloaking. "Something is draining the energy down here. I can feel it. The very molecules are slowing down and that's why it's so cold! It was starting to drain the power out of my suit, but I got it to stop. Love, how's your energon level?"

"It's fine...normal consumption for what we've done so far," Rodimus said.

"Are you sure?" Lancer pressed.

"Yeah, but I'll keep an eye on it," Rodimus assured her. She looked at him askance. "Promise!" he swore.

"OK...but whatever it is we're getting close," she warned.

X

X

X

They trailed ever deeper, past more grim labs and rooms obviously meant as holding pens. There were bits of robotic limbs attached to decomposed organic remains and skeletons. There were rooms that seemed to be part obstacle course, part torture chamber, and with each passing step Magnus became more certain this place was where he spent his childhood. Certainly, he hoped that two such hell-holes didn't exist. Marissa's tight grip on his hand kept him in the present. He was amazed that he didn't flash, although the memories flooded him one after another.

The number of corpses suddenly thinned out, which only strengthened Magnus' certainty.

"Kup told me that once they breached the lowest levels, the Quints called a retreat. They sabotaged my restraints so that they'd fail after the Quints escaped. I guess they were hoping I do some damage for them... and I did too. Luckily...I didn't kill anyone." Marissa squeezed and shook his hand.

"I think you're right Magnus," Rodimus said. "Lancer just found stone holding cells down a few floors and to the left. We've almost hit the bottom guys. She also says she's scanned another hidden door off to the right down a side passage. That's where the energy drain is going. Maybe you weren't the only nasty surprise the Quints left behind."

"That's not a comforting thought, Mr. Prime Sir," Springer said. "You aren't much for troop morale are you?"

"Nope," Rodimus said. "Fuck em! That's what I say."

The group laughed. Hot Rod looked at his twin and they grinned stupidly at each other.

Lancer rejoined them a few minutes later and led them to the hidden door she had found. No one suggested going left at the intersection. Behind the hidden door was a short hallway and another door. This door had major security measures all over it. Rodimus skillfully bypassed these by hacking it...with his sword. Two firm diagonal slashes and one full-bodied side kick and the door saw fit to let them pass. On the other side, a massive hallway with more doors running the length of the far side...and one very massive door on the end.

"Let me guess," Springer said. "The power drain is behind that thing."

"You are an exceptionally good guesser," Lancer told him.

"Lucky me," Springer groaned.

"Should have worn a parka!" Marissa complained.

"I hate the Quints," Foul Play said with a sigh as she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered hard enough to chatter her teeth. "I also hate these damned uncontrollable human reactions to every damned thing."

"Maybe we should just leave it closed," Hot Rod suggested hopefully.

"What? Learning to be cautious already?" Rodimus smirked. "How positively old fogeyish of you."

"Look who's talking old! I am merely wondering if we even need to see what's in there. We're looking for a crystal, not trouble! If it's got Lancer worried then it's more than I want to take on while I'm a squishy."

"I probably should be picking on the kid about this," Springer said, "except that I completely agree with him!"

"Thanks...I think," Hot Rod said.

"Well, for the record, I would agree as well, except that whatever is draining this place may eventually spread to the rest of the planet and I am just not the sort to let Quint handiwork wreck a world," Rodi said gravely.

"See how he talks? That 'Prime' extension automatically makes you talk that way," Springer said.

"Hot Rod?" Rodi asked.

"Yeah?"

"Hit him for me will you?"

"Sure!" Hot Rod answered....and he did, even though Springer tried to dodge.

"Thanks," Rodimus said, moving up to inspect the door beside his mate. She was already standing in front of it, her tail flipping erratically on the ground.

"This door's unlocked," Rodimus said after a moment's inspection.

"That doesn't improve my view of it," Magnus growled. He kept thinking of how the Quints' final move with him was to turn him loose on his saviors. "What could have survived down here all this time?"

"We're about to find out," Rodimus said.

He pushed.

X

X

X

Within the chamber there was nothing to see at first. Air even colder than what they were feeling blasted out at them. Lancer growled though... she could see it...a huge coil about twice Rodi's size laying in the center of the room with rivulets of power flowing along the ground to it like tiny streams. She crouched into a defensive pose and hissed as it suddenly reared up and turned to face her.

"Primus!" Hot Rod exclaimed. "It's a giant hot dog with tentacles!" He was right. The creature did look like a large, reddish hot dog with two spindly, wiggly tentacle "arms" and a grasping circle of teeth arranged like flower petals.

"No it isn't! It's an energy leech! Do not let that thing touch you! It will make you a leech too!" Rodimus cried.

"You've fought this thing before?!" Magnus cried. "How'd you kill it?"

"I didn't! I blasted it into space!" Rodimus groaned. Such an adroit solution was not presenting itself at the moment.

Anything else he might have said was forestalled by the beast's first assault...right towards Rodi's mate. Huge, cumbersome, and bloated the leech should have moved sluggishly, but it didn't. It lashed out towards Lancer like a striking cobra and she leapt straight up to avoid its attack. Somersaulting mid-air over its back, she landed on the far side of it, but it tracked her and attacked again almost the instant she touched down. The thing pulled at her energy through the floor and though she resisted, the group actually saw some of her energy arc into the ground and over to the creature.

Rodimus cursed unconsciously in every language he knew and shot at his mate with his blaster. Magnus and the others felt brief shock but then realized she was simply absorbing the bolts. Leaping up almost exactly as Lancer had, Rodimus slashed at the back of the leech's neck with his sword.

The results were not what he was hoping for. The blade did cut...but only slightly. His sword would slice through yards of hardened steel like air, but the leech's rubbery flesh cushioned most of the impact and the wound was only a few inches deep. Lancer was scanning the thing for weak spots and coming up with nearly nothing. It had no internal organs to speak of. Apparently it had no need to circulate or digest. There was something like a brain about where Rodi had cut, but it was deep in. Leaping back over the thing, he cut at the same spot again, going only a little deeper.

Apparently the leech did have some kind of nerves because this time it roared and turned on Rodi for a minute. It struck at him and he needed all of his assassin's training to dodge the repetitive blows. Ducking under its "chin" he came up around the back of it and cut at it again. Lancer tried to follow suit, but as she sailed over it more of her energy flowed out into the thing.

Lancer! Just keep away from it! Rodi sent.

I can't stop it! It just PULLS and the power goes right to it! she sent back.

I know. Lead it away from the others so we can fight without crushing them! Rodi sent back.

Lancer ran towards the far end of the chamber, evading strike after strike as it followed her instinctively. It continued to focus on her even though Rodimus harried it with his sword as they went, cutting deeper each time he hit his mark. He nailed a good blow (which he was now measuring in inches) but the thing rolled in pain in the same direction he was going. He landed ON it as it thrashed against the stone wall. The wall cracked under impact after impact as the creature contorted in pain.

Rodimus might have celebrated except that the instant his feet touched the surface of the leech's skin he felt his life-force being sucked out of him. He felt a strange hunger starting to rise and wondered if he was being converted into another leech like his friends had been so long ago on Cybertron.

With the last of his will he forced himself to fall away from the thing and as he did he felt a surge of power coming to him from his mate. The hunger subsided, but he knew it cost her a lot of her own energy to restore him. He shot at her again with his blaster and saw answering shots coming to her from their friends as well. Magnus had the gang barricaded behind some rubble and they all had their side arms trained on Lancer.

Rodimus wondered vaguely how many other males could say they were grateful when people tried to shoot their mates.

The wall crumbled outward. This room had never been designed to hold this creature - it looked more like a warehouse than the holding pens and cells they had seen. The Quints had moved the leech there, hoping the Autobots would release it on themselves. Instead the Bots had found Magnus first and fled, leaving the Quints afraid to reclaim the base and cursing their maimed, four-faced member for ever creating the creature.

Hot, muggy air from the jungle outside streamed into the icy chamber causing fog to diffuse the sunlight which streamed in. Magnus and company were glad of the light. They hadn't been able to see much of the battle and didn't want to get stepped on getting closer.

Rodi and Lancer had obviously moved the beast as far from their friends as they could, but the room wasn't large enough to get them completely out of danger. As the walls shuddered under the leech's flailing, bits of rock and ceiling fell. Arcee got a minor crack on the head, and Hot Rod barely dodged a major piece that might have crushed him, but simply grazed his face and left a long shallow cut down one cheek. Blood dripped down his chin like red tears.

Perhaps it was the blood which called them. Perhaps they would have come anyway, but only moments after the leech broke a hole to the outside, the faint light coming in was suddenly blotted out. Magnus stared at the movement as a misshapen black cloud streamed through the small breech and spread out into the room. It moved erratically through the air towards them.

"What is that?!" Marissa cried. "It moves like a flock of starlings!"

"Somehow I doubt our luck is gonna let it be starlings Marissa!" Springer noted. As the swarm closed in they heard the loud buzzing of thousands of wings.

Magnus shot at Lancer again, noting as he did that she was slowing down. He was debating emptying his side arm into her when Hot Rod yelped in pain and disgust. One of the encroaching cloud had broken ahead of the others and hit him in the arm where blood from his chin was staining his shirt. It looked like a small, fuzzy, brown blob had attached to his arm, but as he pulled at it they saw that the two inch critter had a proboscis almost as long as its body. The needle thin nose had plunged into his flesh and was stained red. Hot Rod looked at it, a bit nauseated, as a thin tongue darted out of the tube shaped mouth to lick his blood off its face and then out towards him. Apparently, it was still hungry.

Hot Rod found that the usual protectiveness he felt towards little furry animals didn't seem to apply to something that so clearly found him tasty. He squeezed. It died easily.

The buzzing got louder and they all looked at each other. Suddenly, shooting at Lancer became less of a priority, although they all tried at first to split their attention. In only a few seconds however, Rodimus and Lancer were completely forgotten. Magnus and his companions were surrounded in a hot fog of flying bodies...they couldn't even SEE the fight with the leech, let alone participate.

Magnus desperately bellowed an order to set their blasters on wide beam. They all got hit multiple times will they fiddled with the controls, but each blast cut a wide path of clear air through the swarm. Unfortunately, such fissures closed almost at once. Trying to protect themselves and each other, they went back to back and shot through the swarm in turns, moving towards the wall to give themselves a protected side. One person went on the offensive while the other tried to remove clinging parasites. Each time they removed a wriggling body they killed it, but it left a small wound which bleed freely, and attracted many more.

Rodimus, in robot form, wasn't a target for the blood-hunters, and was completely unaware of his friends' plight. He was at the center of an invisible tug-of-war between the leech and his mate...and she was losing. Neither was really coherent enough to notice when the supporting bolts from Magnus' crew stopped, but Rodimus knew this fight was coming down to who could hold out the longest. He had made some progress cutting in towards the brain, but every time he got close, the leech drained him. Lancer no longer had enough energy to completely distract the leech from her mate, which only sped up their deterioration. The leech would drain Rodimus, Lancer would restore him, the leech would drain what she put back...and once in a while it would go after her directly.

Rodimus made a cut, but partially missed his target because he was having a hard time moving fast enough.

The beast thrashed, and the tail end hit Arcee. They had been forced away from the wall by more falling debris, and while they tried to head straight back she was too far out. Struggling to remove about a dozen blood-suckers from Springer and herself, Arcee forgot to watch for the leech and the swinging tail hit her with a glancing blow. It was still enough to drain her and send her flying. Springer cried out and raced towards her, taking numerous hits on his back and legs as he neglected to defend himself. He took even more when he bent over to pick his mate up and carry her back to the rough circle the others were making. Marissa left Magnus undefended a few moments to help Springer remove the crowded bodies from his back and shoulders...and from Arcee who lay on the ground under their feet.

An impending disaster saved them.

Lancer debated desperately. The suit cost her very little in energy generally, but today it seemed a huge expense. She decided the defense it provided her from the beast's physical mass was no longer worth the cost in power. Exhausted, she deactivated it...and immediately took numerous hits from the flying swarm. For the first time she was aware of the desperate fight her friends were in...and a possible source of energy for herself. The leech seemed unaware of the swarm - it seemed to need direct contact or contact with the ground to pull energy, but she saw the thousands of bodies as a huge source of power.

Usually drawing energy from a living body sickened her, but seeing as how they were drawing her very blood out of her body, she found she didn't care too much.

She simply pulled and almost instantaneously the swarm fell dead.

Magnus and crew looked around in confusion, then relief, and finally disgust as they were suddenly rained upon by tiny dead bodies. The disgust came mostly from the little twitching corpses they had to pull from their own flesh. Magnus quickly took stock. They were all blood soaked and riddled with holes, but Arcee was the only one who seemed badly injured. Checking back on the leech battle, Magnus saw that at some point, Rodi had cut the things "arms" off, but Magnus thought he could see them growing back in. With shock, Magnus realized that while Rodimus had cut nearly half way through the leech's neck, it hadn't slowed down much.

The same could not be said for Rodimus. He was still leaping and dodging in that infuriating, agile way of his, but the leaps were shorter, the dodges cutting much closer. He made to cut the beast, scored, but got caught by the resulting thrashing. As he landed on the far side of the worm-shaped body, he paused instead of moving immediately. The tail slammed into his right side and crushed him into the wall. The left side of his body compressed inward, denting the arm, his chest, and crushing the spoiler like tin foil. On the right side, he came away with a concave dent from the tail which ran from his mid-chest to his hip.

And of course the leech drained his life nearly dry.

Lancer, glowing from her blood-swarm recharge, stretched her hand out towards her mate and poured energy at him. The leech whirled on her again as the brightest source of power in the room. Rodimus fell to his knees as it pulled away from him - his colors were dull and greyish. They brightened as Lancer flooded him with power and his head snapped up.

He knew, without even sending to his mate, that this was it. It was all she had and she was giving it to him. She wasn't even moving as the leech advanced on her. He let rage take over his common sense, and as the leech moved slowly towards Lancer, Rodimus retracted his right hand and pulled out a spinning saw blade.

He leapt onto the thing's back and felt the immediate power drain. Lancer continued to pour energy into him and he plunged his right arm into the wound he had made. The saw blade slowed, straining against the thing's rubbery flesh, but it cut in. It slowed more as his energy faltered. Lancer's energy torrent became a trickle and she fell to her knees in front of the leech.

Magnus and company drained the last remaining dregs from their blasters into her...she sent that last little gift on to her mate. Rodimus screamed silently, chunks of leech flesh splattered up out of the wound and coated his chest. Lancer collapsed completely to the floor , but as she did Rodimus felt a wet and sickening "pop" under the saw blade. The consistency suddenly went from tough rubber to pudding under his arm and he fell forward into the wound with the sudden lack of resistance.

The trashing worm underneath him abruptly became still.

Exhausted, crushed, and grey again from life-drain, Rodimus just slid off the leech's back to the floor. He sat there, covered with gore, hands on his knees. The Prime in him forced him to look up, to evaluate his people. He saw Magnus and company staring back at him, covered with blood as though they had been pelted by darts from head to toe. Rodimus wasn't clear on how they got that way and he worried vaguely that Arcee was stretched out on the ground...as was Lancer, but he knew his mate lived.

"Arcee?" he asked. It was all he could summon the strength to say. Marissa and Springer were with her.

"She's coming around," Marissa told him.

Rodimus nodded, and tried to stand. His legs were shaking, but he managed on the second try. He was mentally calling for his mate even before he reached her side, and felt her respond. She wasn't really unconscious, just completely exhausted.

Lancer lay on the floor on her stomach, eyes closed because she couldn't find the energy to open them. She reached out, hoping to find something, anything, to give her mate the recharge he needed once again. She found it, and panicked. The warning she threw into Rodimus' mind came almost too late.

Rodimus, for all the trouble he had getting himself to stand, suddenly found himself motivated to run.

"GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" he roared, running at Magnus and the others. Magnus responded to the order instinctively, hearing life or death in Rodimus' command. The whole team threw themselves down and away. Springer covered Arcee with his body.

Rodimus threw his body down and side-ways from a full tilt run. He didn't expect much protection for himself, but maybe he could make his body into a sort of break-wall for the others. His momentum kept him moving and he threw his hands out in front of him to catch the wall and keep his mass from crushing his friends.

Behind him the world went white.

All the others saw was Rodimus suddenly running and screaming at them to get down. They didn't know what the problem was but the urgency, the terror, in his voice moved their limbs for them. They saw him fling his battered body sideways to the floor and were suddenly aware that there were thousands of pounds of skidding metal scraping towards them. His flame-wrapped chest suddenly looked more like an encroaching wall than part of a person...an object to be feared and avoided. Then they were ducking Rodimus' enormous limbs as he slid towards them at high speed. Sparks rained down upon them, adding small burns to their wounds.

Watching an Autobot barreling at him out of control, Magnus had flash-backs of getting run over by a different Prime. His thought, inappropriate as it seemed was "Oh no. Not again."

Then the light flared up behind Rodi's back and it became clear that this dangerous stunt was Rodi's only means of saving them. His outstretched arms went rigid and electrical surges caused his body to spasm. Magnus saw Rodi's eyes widen and his mouth contort with agony. At that moment, he realized how horrible it was that Rodimus couldn't scream as every circuit inflamed with overload. Blue-white electrical arcs dove in and out of his body like breeching dolphins. Mercifully for all of them, the anguish only lasted a second as the room and Rodi's optics went dark, leaving them with an unconscious body sparking its way across the floor towards them rather than a flashing being flailing in agony.

Sometimes you had to look on the bright side.

Rodi's arms reached the wall. They buckled under the slowing force of his skid, but they were enough resistance to stop his body from crushing his friends against the wall. Barely.

They were all contorted into odd positions in their attempt to find room between his chest, the wall, and his tangled limbs.

For a long moment, no one moved or spoke. There was the sound of sparks, of dripping water, of wildlife outside, and their own ragged breathing.

"Hot Rod?" Springer gasped. The triple changer was crouched under Rodimus' inert fingers, having ducked there at the last minute.

"Huh?" Hot Rod answered. He was flattened against the wall, arm in front of Foul Play who was ashen and wide-eyed. They were mere millimeters from Rodi's face. Hot Rod's chest brushed Rodi's nose when he inhaled too deeply.

"I'm never calling any version of you 'little' again," Springer vowed.

"If you think I won't remember that because I'm freaked and everything you're wrong," Hot Rod vowed. His voice had a hysterical edge to it.

"Quit it you two! Is anyone seriously hurt now besides Arcee? Is Rodimus functioning at all?" Magnus snapped. Everyone, even Arcee, responded that they were OK, although the fem-bot's voice was weak and unconvincing.

Foul Play was even with Rodi's optics. "I don't think he's on-line. His optics are dark...Ultra Magnus...his color is bad...he may be," Foul Play gulped and threw a glance at Hot Rod, "he may be gone Sir."

"We have to get out from behind him! Can any of you move?" Magnus asked. "Marissa and I are pinned!"

Hot Rod looked at the still face in front of him and wondered why he wasn't more disturbed. The vague thought that he would look that way when he died surfaced and was pushed down at once. "I can Sir. Give me and Foul Play a minute and we'll come for you."

He gave Foul Play a push to get her moving. She was staring at Rodi's face as if mesmerized. They came out around the top of Rodi's head and helped Springer and a dizzy Arcee climb up over Rodi's crumpled chest and down his back on the other side. They moved fast - the metal on his back was heated from the blast.

Using the crushed spoiler for hand-holds to get down was a necessary evil. Rodimus' entire back was covered with slimy, steaming chunks of leech. They weren't really sure what had happened to the monster. Rodi's last cut had nearly severed it, but now it was splattered all over the chamber as though someone had fed it a bomb. The pieces smoked and sizzled like meat from Carly's barbeque.

"I'm never eating hot dogs again," Hot Rod vowed as he helped Arcee find a marginally clean piece of debris to sit on. Joking helped him somehow. Springer sat down next to his mate shakily. His skin was pale and yellowish, making his blond hair blend in to the rest of his face. Arcee leaned on him and he put a supportive arm around her gingerly.

The area smelled like burning tar and they all coughed frequently.

It was a bit more work to get Magnus and Marissa free because they were pinned between Rodi's knees and some sizable chunks of rubble. Hot Rod managed to slip back into the space around Rodi's mid-section and he pulled while Magnus pushed at the boulder blocking them. It only took a moment for them to make a space big enough for Marissa and Magnus to squeeze through, and they were even able to use the rock as a stepping stone to get out from behind Rodi's still bulk. Magnus was glad they were able to get out quickly. He was worried Rodimus might never reactivate, but he also felt deep concern that if Rodimus did come back online while they were close, it would be in the middle of a full-force flashback. Magnus understood that Rodi's Autobot form was less sensitive than his human body, but an overload was undoubtedly one of the most painful things a Transformer could experience.

Magnus kept this worry to himself.

He jumped down and tried not to think that he was climbing over a corpse. Rodi's vibrant reds, rusts, and golds had dimmed to near blacks and greys...and Magnus had a sudden eerie insight into why his own matte paint job frightened so many people. In addition to the earlier crushing blows he had taken, Rodi's entire back was charred from shielding them from that mysterious blast. The damage was extreme. Whatever had happened, Rodimus had undoubtedly saved their lives at that moment.

The City Commander refused to allow himself to start grieving. Rodimus might just be knocked out, although his dull color was a very bad sign, but Magnus knew whatever the case, he couldn't help the Autobot right now. Rodi's circuits would reset themselves or they wouldn't.

He tried to focus on those he could help, knowing Rodimus wouldn't thank him for neglecting any of them.

"Where's Lancer?" Magnus asked.

"Over here," Foul Play said. Something in her voice made Magnus fear the worst.

The Ex-Decepticon stood about ten feet from Lancer, and Magnus was about to ask why she didn't go closer when his eyes gave him the answer.

Miniature lighting bolts still surged in and out of Lancer's body. There was a circle of heated rock around her that glowed an angry red. It was split and fissured in a spider-web pattern as though hit with a powerful blow and was the only area around not covered with splattered leech. Her hair, never un-braided in their experience, was spread out under her like a golden curtain. She was entirely nude. Magnus heard the others gasp as they came up behind him. He wondered vaguely if it was the glowing rock, the arcs of errant power, or the vast array of scars that trailed along Lancer's entire body.

Marissa had a stupid, inappropriate thought that now she understood why Lancer always wore full-length pants and long sleeves, even in the Florida heat.

"Is she alive?" Magnus asked.

"She breathing," Foul Play said, "but only once in a while."

"We need to get to her! What happened to her?" Hot Rod exclaimed. He reached his hand over the fading hot spot and immediately got shocked.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed.

Lancer twitched.

"Is she waking up? What are all those marks? What could have made all of those?" Foul Play asked.

"Foul Play," Marissa answered her, "Those aren't from today. Those are old scars. I don't see any fresh wounds, but those twitches are not good. She's not waking up, she's having small seizures."

There was an ear-splitting, screeching, grinding noise behind them. Metal on metal scraping and setting their teeth on edge. They all turned and saw with immense relief that Rodimus was moving. Magnus held them back from rushing to Rodi's side as the Autobot painfully turned over onto his stomach. He rolled over and put his hands to the floor and tried to push himself up on quaking arms. As he did, he morphed, and his face contorted into another silent scream. He hung his head down between his arms and shuddered.

Continued in Part C


	3. Chapter 3

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part C

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part C

Continued from Part B

Marissa knew why Magnus was holding them back, but she broke away anyway and took Rodi by the shoulders. She felt blood and sweat already soaking through his uniform. He propped himself on one hand and grabbed his chest on the right side.

He looked up at her with glazed, wild eyes. She didn't expect him to be coherent at all, but he managed one urgent sentence. "Help me!" He pushed himself up with more speed than Marissa could comprehend and ran towards his mate. He ignored both the currents and the heat as he removed the mutant from her glowing circle and placed her gently on the floor nearby. Reaching into his pack without looking he first got out, of all things, a loop of metal wire attached to a solid metal spike. He wrapped this loosely around Lancer's ankle and stabbed it forcefully into the ground. The random sparks around her body immediately ceased.

No one spoke while he rummaged some more and pulled out a strange tough nylon tube attached to some straps. Its purpose became clear when he forced Lancer's mouth open and wedged it inside like a bit. He strapped it to her head and cinched it very tight.

"Rodimus? What are you doing?" Foul Play cried. The mouth piece looked like a torture device to her.

"She's been overloaded," Rodimus said without looking up or stopping. His voice was too calm, like when he'd told them about being tortured. "She's going to start having grand-mal seizures any minute now. I need to get her restrained or she'll tear herself up." He bound her hands up with nylon gloves designed to contain her claws, and booted her feet to blunt the talons on her toes. Then he got out an injectable muscle relaxer and gave her a heavy dose in the arm.

Finally he did look up and they saw the whole left side of his face was black with bruising and his left eye was swollen shut. He gave them all the same physical evaluation they were giving him.

"Are any of you in shape to help me hold her down?" he asked. Every one of them was covered in blood.

"What do you need us to do?" Magnus asked.

"Can you and Springer get her legs?" Rodimus asked. It wasn't an order, just a desperate request.

"Both of us? I think one is enou..." Magnus started. He stopped when Rodimus shook his head.

"These won't be ordinary seizures...her powers will run down her nerve channels. If we don't lock her down she'll rip the muscles right off the bones...she'll bleed to death. Please...if you can. Sit on her if you have to!" Springer and Magnus looked at each other and moved quickly into position. Springer sat backwards on her shins and grabbed her ankles. Magnus sat facing the other way on her thighs and pressed his hands down onto her hip bones. With their combined weight it was going to be impossible for her to move in his mind.

Lancer twitched at intervals, a little harder each time.

Rodi put Marissa on Lancer's right shoulder and Hot Rod on Lancer's left. He had special instructions for his twin.

"This is the arm she got speared through...see the scar?" Rodimus asked.

"It's kind of hard to miss," Hot Rod answered. He felt weird, as if this wasn't really real and he was floating in some kind of dream.

"She doesn't take care of it. It's a standard set of replacement bones in there....meant for housewives and school teachers - not crazy ninja moves. She needs a replacement but it's always one thing or another she's got to do before she'll take another year out of action in rehab. The bones come apart. That's why I'm always popping her shoulder back into place. You hold her down Hot Rod. Hold her down. If she pulls that thing apart bad enough it will rip the artery in two and we'll lose her. It's...it's not your fault if we lose her...but please try. Yell if you need me to help you," Rodimus said quietly. Lancer shuddered.

"I won't let her go," Hot Rod promised.

"Rodimus...obviously you have prepared for this. What...what are her chances?" Magnus asked. He hated the question, but he needed to know what they were up against.

"I don't know. She's been overloaded before and it's been bad. She's even gone through cardiac arrest. Marissa...you know CPR right?" Rodimus wondered vaguely. The EDC Captain nodded but wasn't even sure if he registered her answer. He just went on. "It's never been this much power. All the energy the leech ever took in flooded out of it into her. She couldn't hold that much so it just...roared through her channels. She tried to funnel it away from us into the ground...and she did, mostly. I would have been vaporized. So would you."

"Rodimus...what will happen to you if she dies?" Marissa asked.

"We...don't know. I might just die too...or maybe I'll live," Rodimus answered bleakly. "Which reminds me...Foul Play...are you up to a job too?"

"I want to help," she answered.

He reached into his satchel again and handed her a firearm. "Keep watch," he said. "If anything by the door or that hole moves...kill it." She nodded and he reached into the side of his uniform. "If you need to," he said emotionlessly, "kill me too." He handed her a small hexagon shaped piece of circuitry.

"What's this?" she asked, her voice rising.

"It's a self-destruct device. The Jabez use them to destroy conversion chips in dead Converts. I've got something similar planted...somewhere. I don't know where it is so a telepath can't find it out from me. All I know is that if you press that I will die in either form."

"Wha...! Why are you giving this to me?!" Foul Play shrieked.

"If she dies...Foul Play...the last time I was by myself in my own mind I was a psychopath. If she goes...if she leaves me...I can't really see how I would survive...but if I do I almost surely will go insane. Please...do not let me hurt anyone," Rodimus finally showed a little emotion. He was begging her.

Lancer convulsed, and Magnus grunted with surprise. He hadn't been fully braced and she had shifted even under his full weight.

Whatever Foul Play might have said to Rodimus as she stared at him in frank horror was cut off by another spasm from Lancer. She made some kind of horrendous noise that was neither scream nor growl, but an explosion of air past demonic vocal cords. Then the convulsions really began. Hers was the only voice at first as the others fought one grim second at a time to keep her pinned. Their sweat and blood combined to run down her naked, quaking form.

Rodimus hadn't exaggerated. It was all the men could do to hold her down in spite of their combined weight and strength. They could see her hands gripping and shredding the nylon mittens Rodimus had encased them in, and the parallel gouges scarred into her thighs suddenly became clear. Many of her scars were self-inflicted.

Arcee watched in a strange, hyper-alert daze while her friends sweated and fought. Odd details like the blood running down Springer's arms were very clear to her, but the sounds were strange and distorted. Springer, Hot Rod, and Magnus shouted encouragement to each other in voices that sounded slowed and dreamlike to Arcee. Marissa shouted her encouragement to Lancer. Arcee saw Lancer vomit around her mouth piece in slow motion, and saw Rodimus fighting to clear the airways while keeping his knee on Lancer's chest. The intense look on Foul Play's face, hovering over the others with Rodi's blaster and scanning the fringes, trying futilely not to watch Lancer's battle, would stay with Arcee for the rest of her life.

"She's not breathing!" Marissa cried, and time for Arcee suddenly resumed normal pace.

Rodimus froze and stared at his mate, "You don't get to just go and leave me to raise those girls by myself," he murmured. Knee still on her chest he closed his eyes and inhaled. Her chest rose unevenly. Each breath he took for the next few minutes was synchronized with Lancer's.

It seemed like hours, but it really wasn't long though before the seizures finally slowed, then stopped. Rodimus blinked, and held his breath. Lancer's chest stopped moving for a moment, and then rose and fell slightly on its own. Rodimus fell backwards off Lancer's body and collapsed onto the floor. He held onto his own chest with his left hand.

"Is...is it over?" Hot Rod gasped. His whole body was quaking with fatigue.

"Your part of it is," Rodimus whispered. He had no reason to be quiet; he just couldn't do any better. Rodi sat up slowly, reached out and released Lancer's mouthpiece. It was blood-stained. He frowned, and threw it across the room. Then he went after the restraints on her hands with a vengeance.

Magnus and Springer released their cramped grips and suddenly felt their own injuries again. There was a noise outside the hole in the wall and they all turned on it sharply. Foul Play held Rodi's gun straight out in front of her. Her whole body shook, but her hands were steady.

"We can't stay here," she told them. "There's movement outside."

"Lancer will never make it back to the shuttle," Rodimus said flatly. He might have been reading a grocery list for all the emotion he showed. "The other pens in the hallway will be barren. The leech took the life out of everything here. They should be defensible." Tired and injured though he was, he picked his mate off the ground without assistance and carried her out of the battlefield. He put a bit of distance between them and the splattered corpse by choosing the farthest room in the main hall outside. Springer helped Arcee walk behind Rodi, Marissa and Magnus leaned on each other, and Hot Rod stayed with Foul Play bringing up the rear.

X

X

X

The room Rodi chose was a small, dark lab, not a holding pen. Once they were all through the door they locked it and began taking stock. The room was cold, but Rodimus had insisted they bring numerous thermal blankets as part of their kits before they left. At the time he had seemed sort of silly to them - they all had four apiece. Now they were very grateful to have them. Rodimus wrapped his mate in two of the silvery sheets and sat down against a wall to put her head in his lap. He assured Marissa that he could handle his mate for the moment and she was forced to believe him.

As an EDC officer, Marissa had comprehensive training in first aid. She had to force each of the party to strip. They weren't shy about being naked but they were cold. All of them were riddled with oozing holes. The wounds weren't large, but Marissa suspected the "furry mosquitoes" as Hot Rod was calling them, used an anti-coagulant just as real mosquitoes did. She found a large tube of coagulant anti-biotic cream in Rodi's overstocked medical kit and she made the most of it. She found holes on herself and her friends no one was even aware of because they were all in so much general pain they couldn't pin-point most of it. Marissa was happy to see that Rodi's cream was also an effective pain-killer. He also had a huge amount of gauze and tape, but she was still conservative.

Springer had more than a hundred holes on his back alone.

It took a long time to inspect and bandage everyone. Foul Play stood guard until it was her turn. Hot Rod helped Marissa by handing her gauze and cutting tape after she sealed his punctures and pulled the four inch gash on his cheek together and sealed it with skin glue and butterfly bandages. Springer fussed over Arcee and didn't want Marissa's attention to draw him away from his mate. Magnus finally made it an order, but Marissa felt that it was really Arcee's clipped assurance that "I don't like it when you bleed on me you big dumb-ass," that really got Springer to behave.

Magnus stood at attention by the door until it was his turn. Marissa used a lot of gauze on him too. The two big men had taken the most hits by far - partly because they had both spent time defending Arcee rather than themselves, but mostly just because of sheer surface area. When she was done, Magnus and Hot Rod awkwardly returned the favor on Marissa's wounds. Fortunately for them, she only had eight or so on her back where she couldn't dress them herself.

Gratefully pulling her clothes back on she turned and looked at Rodimus. He was leaning against the wall with his back straight as a board with Lancer resting limp in his lap and his eyes closed. In the dim light of the glow sticks (also from Rodi's over-stocked kits) his hair and his face looked black on one side, white on the other.

She approached him and Magnus grabbed her arm.

"Marissa...be careful. He's got to be in pain and he strikes to kill when he flashes, remember?"

"I know...but I need to get a look at him. I...I can't do anything for Lancer," she said. It was almost an apology.

Magnus' hand on her arm gave her a supporting squeeze, and they approached the assassin pair togther.

"Rodi?" Marissa asked. There was a long pause before he opened his eyes.

"Hmm?"

"You need to let me look at you," Marissa told him.

He smiled and closed his eyes again.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who'd rather not," Springer noted. Arcee, who was laying in his lap just like Lancer was in Rodi's, reached up and pinched her mate without opening her eyes.

"What! I didn't say anything!" Springer complained.

"Rodi, come on," Marissa insisted.

"You can't do anything for me Marissa. I'm banged up, but I'm not bleeding."

"You were earlier," Magnus argued.

"It stopped," Rodi countered.

"Rodi just humor me," Marissa ordered. Rodimus didn't open his eyes but he smiled again.

"I won't go away until you let me look at you," she tried.

"Suit yourself," he answered.

"You are going to fall asleep any second and I'll check you over then like it or not," Marissa growled.

Rodi's eyes flashed back open. "That's dangerous," he told her.

"I know....and you don't want to put me in further danger now do you?" Marissa smirked. "Hah! I've got you now!"

"You cheat," Rodimus grumbled.

"Learned it from my momma. Let Foul Play hold on to Lancer for you. I know that's why you don't want to move anyway you stubborn Asshole."

Foul Play, who was hovering with Hot Rod, handed Magnus the gun and knelt down in front of Rodi. She gravely tried to hand him back the awful little suicide chip he'd given her.

He shook his head. "Keep it. She's not out of the woods yet. By morning we should know if she'll come around."

Foul Play narrowed her eyes and glared at Rodimus, but she let him shift Lancer's weight onto her knees. Foul Play looked down into Lancer's face and tried to read if her teacher would ever open her eyes again. Failing that, she tried to predict how she would feel if Lancer never came around. It was a shock to realize that she might lose a friend this day...not that someone might die, but that Foul Play had a friend to lose. What did you do to recover from such a loss? Foul Play didn't know. With nothing else to do with herself, Foul Play toyed with Lancer's long smooth hair while Marissa examined Rodimus.

"Shirt off," Marissa ordered.

"Not necessary," Rodimus said.

"Bullshit! I thought we were over you trying stupid lies on us Rodimus Prime! Now I know you're hiding something. I saw that thing hit you into the wall. Your face is purple all the way down your collar, so let's see the rest of it!" Marissa snarled.

"Still has more courage than brains," Springer quipped across the room. Arcee pinched him again. "What? That was a compliment! Right Hot Rod? Arcee! Quit pinching!"

"I'm only pinching because I'm too tired to hit you properly. Shut up already! Don't you ever think? What if Lancer dies tonight?" Arcee scolded weakly.

Rodimus sighed, giving no sign he even heard that exchange, and attempted to get his shirt off. He got it up about two inches when it became clear he needed help. Hot Rod didn't say a word. He just took the armored fabric out of Rodi's hands and pulled.

"Oh Primus," Hot Rod exclaimed in a whisper.

Rodimus hadn't been lying. All the bleeding was stopped, but his left side was bruised from his temple down to his hip where he'd been crushed into the wall. There was also something like road-rash from his pell-mell slide across the room on that side. His right side was mostly undamaged but where it was hit was much more severe. The leech's tail had caught him just below the arm pit and made a concave dent deep into his right side. As a human this translated into a swollen bruise that went from his nippleless pectoral muscles down to his hip, and at least five broken ribs that were obviously out of place under his skin. Each breath showed them off quite nicely.

"Ew!" Hot Rod said.

"Rodimus! I am going to kill you for trying to hide this!" Marissa snarled.

"Captain Fairborne...I appreciate your concern, but what precisely do you think you can do for broken ribs?" Rodimus challenged her.

She glared uselessly at him.

"Trust me, I would have asked you for help if I knew you could. You can't. If...if we live through the night, my body will heal itself. It hurts, but I honestly have lived through worse. Now can I have my shirt back please? The armor was helping hold them still."

"Not until I've wrapped that up," Marissa said firmly.

"The armor really does..." Rodi started.

"Fine! Good! I'm wrapping them anyway! One wrong move and you'll puncture a lung and I doubt that will help Lancer any!"

Rodi sighed in forbearance and cooperated. Even Springer flinched in sympathy when Rodimus couldn't lift his arms high enough on his own. Hot Rod took his twin's hands and held them up so that Marissa could get binding gauze wrapped hard around the slightly protruding bones. Then they helped him painfully put his shirt back on. Lancer stirred and growled in Foul Play's lap while they worked on it.

"You're going to move over there," Marissa ordered, pointing to the corner. Rodimus started to protest but she cut him off and launched into a flood of scolding. It was like a dam had burst. "I know there isn't a chance in hell you'll let anyone else hold her all night dummy! I just want you to have another wall to lean on so you can rest better! Stubborn macho stupidity! No YOU won't pick her up! Magnus will pick her up! I can't believe you carried her in here when there were other people to help you! Vector Sigma really has messed you up! You don't trust anyone! Not deep down you don't."

"I do but..."

"But nothing! As if you really expected me to buy that bullshit you tried, even though I know you have a death wish and that you got crushed and drained and blasted! Honesty! Give it a try! Lying really is like a...like a way of life for you!"

Marissa motioned for Hot Rod to help her lay out one of the thermal blankets on the floor. She continued scolding an unprotesting Prime while she led him to the corner and helped him sit on the blanket. Then she found another one and wrapped it around his back and shoulders. Magnus picked Lancer up as gently as he could, not liking the boneless way her limbs flopped one bit. He carried her to her mate and laid her on Rodi's lap.

"Thanks," Rodi said.

"No problem. Next time, ask. Marissa's gonna keep going off about this and I for one, do not want to have to keep listening to it."

"Sorry," Rodimus mumbled.

"No you aren't. Asshole," Magnus said gruffly. "You'll do it again next chance you get."

Rodimus didn't answer. He was already asleep. Magnus sagged. He was tired too, mostly from blood-loss.

He turned a skeptical eye on his nephew who was looking strangely at his twin and Lancer.

"They're really messed up," Hot Rod muttered. Magnus didn't know if the young 'bot meant mentally or physically but he was too tired to probe.

"Right. Hot Rod...you and Foul Play seem in pretty good shape. Can you two take first watch?"

"Sure. Go rest. You look pretty bad too," Hot Rod said, looking at him with a worried frown. He suddenly straightened and pressed his lips together.

Magnus stared at his nephew. One eyebrow quirked up as he was suddenly very suspicious of Hot Rod's resolved expression.

He grabbed the young Autobot by the shirt front and lifted him off the ground.

"You are NOT to follow in that idiot's footsteps, Hot Rod!"

"Magnus! Hey! Lemme go!" Hot Rod cried.

"You will wake me up for my watch in three hours, understood? We are a TEAM! You are NOT going to play a stupid martyr and stay up all night! Three hours. Not three hours and one minute! Got it?"

"Hey! I wasn't...!" Hot Rod started. Magnus pulled his dangling nephew in and held him nose to nose. Hot Rod's entire world-view became a glaring pair of two-toned grey eyes.

"You gonna lie to me some more boy?" Magnus asked.

Hot Rod opened his mouth, closed it, looked sideways at Magnus and then said. "No. No Sir."

"Right," Magnus said, dropping him. Hot Rod landed on his feet.

The two of them looked at each other.

"What gave me away?" Hot Rod asked finally.

"I'm a fucking psychic," Magnus growled. "I'm going to lie down." He stalked over to Marissa who had some blankets already laid out for them and stretched out beside her.

The last thing he heard before falling fast asleep was Springer saying "Told you. More courage than brains! Ouch! Arcee that hurts!"

X

X

X

The next morning Magnus awoke feeling better and furious. He surged up out of his "bed" and went for Hot Rod.

"I told you three hours! That was a direct order and there won't be any slack this time! I'm bringing you up on charges Hot Rod!"

"But Sir!" Hot Rod started. The circles around his eyes were nearly black.

"Don't 'Sir' me when you don't listen to a word I say!" Magnus started.

"Eh-hem," Marissa said mildly. "Before you put your foot in it any deeper Mr. City Commander, perhaps you should let him finish his sentence?"

Magnus blinked at her in surprise and Hot Rod collected himself.

"Sir...we TRIED to wake you. Marissa took your shift. The three of us took turns all night because you and Springer wouldn't wake up. Marissa said it was better for you to sleep because you were...what's that word again Marissa?"

"Anemic," Marissa said. "They're anemic. Too much blood lost yesterday and too much body to run on what's left. Don't blame Hot Rod Magnus. He did try to get you up but I talked him out of it after the first few tries. Have some water and eat something."

"Oh..." Magnus muttered.

"Right. Oh," said Marissa. "Do you have anything else to say to your very tired nephew before I make him get some sleep?"

"Sorry Hot Rod," Magnus grunted.

"Ah, the enthusiasm!" Marissa complained, but she gave him an energy bar and a smile.

"S'alright Sir," Hot Rod said, giving what was supposed to be a crisp salute. He missed entirely and didn't even realize it.

Magnus very carefully kept his face straight and saw to it Hot Rod went to lie down. Foul Play was already sleeping. Then Magnus chuckled to himself and went to sit with Marissa.

"What happened?" he asked.

"When he came to wake you he got me up instead because he couldn't get you to respond. You woke up a little...enough to tell me you weren't in danger, but you were basically in shock. Springer's the same only he's even worse off than you. I won't try getting him up for a few more hours. So we rotated...three hour shifts in teams, but overlapping. Every hour and a half one of us would get up to relieve the first. That way everyone got some sleep, but no one had to sit alone. It worked, but I'm tired. At least none of us fell asleep on watch...and have you noticed the power is starting to come back on? I think most of the grid is still online, but the leech was diverting all the juice."

Magnus frowned. He hadn't noticed, but now he was seeing signs of it. Some of the instrument panels had lights coming on...and the floor level walkway lights were starting to glow too. He frowned deeper, remembering all the continuos light and noise that came from this facility when he was a captive. It was never fully dark, except in his cell, never fully quiet like this either. He thought of all the levels they had come past, he thought of all the power it took to keep a facility this size running.

He looked over to where Lancer and Rodimus were sleeping. At some point during the night, Rodi had shifted to lie down next to his mate. The red-head had put Lancer close to the wall and his mangled back to the room. One arm was wrapped over Lancer's body. Magnus could hardly make her out behind her mate's protective embrace, and she suddenly seemed so small to him.

"If that...that thing was devouring all the power that runs this place... how...how could she channel it all?" he whispered to himself.

"She didn't, Magnus. That's why she's hurt," Marissa pointed out.

"She couldn't contain it, but she MUST have directed it. Even the overflow of that much energy should have blown this whole wing sky-high," Magnus mused. "Do you think she'll make it? And don't pretend you've been being careful and keeping your distance. I know you too well too," Magnus said.

"I've been careful...I make sure to wake Rodi up before I check on them," Marissa said with a faint smile. Then she sobered. "I don't know how she is. She's still alive, and she's breathing on her own, but she's developing a set of bruises almost as bad as Rodi's. She's got a knee print on her chest, rings around her ankles where Springer had them, and a full ten count of Magnus finger-tips around her hips," Marissa said. She went on before he could protest, "You couldn't help it. You all did what you had to do. The bruises aren't really serious, but they do show how bad the seizures were. I don't know what to say. If she really does channel energy down her nervous system then she could have nerve damage. She isn't moving much. She may be paralyzed. She might even have brain damage. Seizures sometimes cause brain damage, but I'm not a doctor. Even if I were, medical training in this universe surely doesn't cover what happens when a mutant does...whatever it is she did to herself yesterday."

They heard the slightest noise, and looked up at the people they were talking about. Rodimus had turned slightly towards them and for a brief second Magnus thought he caught a flash of green amidst all the bruising.

"Give it up, Deceitful One. I know you're awake," Magnus whispered.

"We're talking about you. Why don't you join us and make it an informed conversation?" Marissa added.

Rodimus sighed, and sat up with difficulty. "Are you guys OK?" he asked.

"Look who's talking," Magnus retorted. "My friend, your face looks like hamburger."

Rodimus didn't answer, he just looked at them.

"We're all fine. The bites are not deep and the antibiotic seems to be working," Marissa told him. "Arcee got it the worst because the leech drained her on top of the fuzzy mosquito bites, but she just needs rest and something to eat."

Rodi smiled and shifted himself back towards the wall so that he could cradle Lancer's head again. He stroked her face gently, and then took one of her lax hands in his own.

"I hate this part," he confessed. "I've never been good at waiting, but waiting for her to wake up after being hurt makes me want to climb the walls."

"Can you tell me more about what happened?" Marissa asked. "I've got really good field training, but I don't know what's wrong."

"Marissa, you know I would have already asked," Rodimus said, looking at her sideways from his one open eye.

"You know, Pop-Eye, just fucking humor me for once," Marissa snarled.

Rodi sighed. "She tried to direct the blast. She knew she couldn't contain it all, but she forced it through and down. I'm sure all the silicates under this base are fused glass for miles deep. In retrospect I guess we're lucky she didn't set off an earthquake. Funny how these thoughts can freak you out after the fact isn't it?"

He smiled wanly. "As for what's wrong with her, we don't have a lot of information...it's not like she does this often. She's only been overloaded three times in her life before now. The first two were before she met me and before she really learned to control her powers...the first time was how she figured out she HAD powers. Never stand next to her during a lightning storm by the way. Neither of the first two times were that serious, but she was alone, so she didn't get any medical help. She just had to...lay there and wait for it to be over."

Rodimus inhaled raggedly and seemed to forget he had listeners for a while.

Finally, he went on. "The last time was during a mission she ran with the Maelstrom crew and she hit against another energy shaper like herself. A Convert. Its orders were to self-destruct if cornered and she saved her team by absorbing the blast. I was in a conference with Jazz and Optimus and the back-lash through our link knocked me flat on my ass. Optimus... said bad words to me...I think. Her heart stopped, but Malice restarted it telekinetically. Each time she's been overloaded it's felt to her like every nerve in her body has been set on fire. We got her examined the last time and Doc said all of the little channels her nerves run through were inflamed and swollen."

"Doc? As in G.I. Joe my dad's friend Doc?" Marissa asked, incredulous.

"The same. He's like ninety some years old now, but we trust him and he knows what he's doing. More importantly, he's off everyone's radar because he's retired. The surgeon who did Lancer's shoulder was too good. He was an outspoken man... supported mutant rights to medical care and stuff. He got Converted," Rodimus said. "Lancer was really devastated by that. He never acted afraid of her."

"Oh...Rodimus. I really hate your universe," Marissa said. "You shouldn't have to pick a doctor based on whether or not they're afraid of you!"

Rodimus shrugged. "Mutants scare lots of people...even themselves. Believe me, my little teenaged Lancer was not a happy girl after finding out she was a magnet for lighting bolts. Each overload has made her capacity much higher, but until the inflamation passes she's in agony. I've got heavy duty anti-inflamatories in her already, a muscle relaxer for the cramps she's gonna get, and I've got a morphine derivative in my kit too. As for brain damage, I won't know for sure until she's awake, but what I can sense from her seems normal."

"Isn't morphine addictive?" Magnus asked, pulling up vague memories from his time in the hospital.

"The new stuff isn't. She won't let me give her much anyway. Once she's strong enough to sit up she'll tell me where to shove it. It isn't addictive, but it does cloud your head, and between the claws and the powers, Lancer is really paranoid about clouded judgement," Rodimus said.

rightly so she sent to him.

He jumped, and then grinned. "Welcome back, Angel," he smiled.

"She's awake?" Marissa cried quietly. She and Magnus couldn't see any outward change. The mutant remained as pale and still as death.

Rodimus nodded and sagged back against the wall. He inhaled deeply. "Yeah," was all he said, but Marissa thought she saw a suspicious glint in his good eye.

quit shouting my head hurts

"Love, no one is shouting. The others are still asleep," Rodimus whispered.

too loud! Lancer responded. Her pain flooded into him and he winced visibly.

"Marissa...can you please find the morphine in my medical kit... please?"

don't need that shit...hate that stuff...wow...everything hurts...

"You may not need it, but I need you to have it!" Rodimus told her.

asshole... she sent sullenly.

"This is going to be a very long day," Rodimus told his friends. They seemed pretty happy about it anyway.

Continued in Part D


	4. Chapter 4

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part D

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part D

Continued from Part C

A long day it was, but it got better as it went along for most of them.

If Rodimus hadn't been there to assure them Lancer was awake and aware, none of them would have known for hours after she first "spoke" to him. She neither moved nor opened her eyes until after noon, Earth-time. Even then, she only moved to adjust her position on the ground.

No one minded the rest. They were all sore. Rodimus had his broken ribs to contend with, and the others developed perfectly round, quarter-sized bruises around each and every "mosquito" bite. Springer's back was so densely packed that it looked like he had one solid bruise from shoulders to back-side, highlighted by tiny red punctures.

He and Hot Rod got into a heated debate about whether the punctures or Hot Rod's slashed face "counted" more. Foul Play sat mostly by herself and didn't talk much, even when Hot Rod tried to get her to take his side.

Marissa went around making sure they were all replacing their lost fluids and eating...not that she had much trouble getting her crew to eat. Even Rodimus behaved himself and quietly ate no less than three of the highly potent energy bars they had packed. He spent most of his time massaging cramps out of Lancer's limbs as her muscles still spasmed on and off during the day.

The only hold out on eating was Lancer, who continued to speak only through her mate for most of the day. By three o'clock Marissa had had enough.

"Love, I know you don't feel like it..." Rodimus was saying. "I already ate a bunch of them...you need it!" He retched and looked green. "Don't throw your upset stomach at me. I know you don't feel well, but a lot of that is because you have an empty stomach and you're in pain!"

"Having trouble Rodi?" Marissa asked. She couldn't help it - there was laughter in her voice.

"Oh don't smirk. The irony hasn't been lost on me," Rodimus told Marissa. "It is NOT a different set of circumstances Lancer! You think I wasn't nauseous with pain the day you forced that lizard flambee' on me? Please...I had little square holes in my chest from their fucking tissue samples. No, I'm not getting into an 'I'm hurt worse' contest with you. You think I can't hear those two making idiots of themselves? ... I know the morphine makes you sick....if you eat something we can switch to the oral medicine which doesn't....Lancer...just try...Marissa! Quit laughing!"

Rather than stopping her, his indignant demand cracked her control completely and set the others off as well.

"These one sided conversations of yours are very enlightening... Prime," Marissa snickered.

Lancer was annoyed enough at all the noise to open one eye for just a moment.

"I saw that," Marissa said. "Now then, as entertaining as all this is, I want to ask you a question my dear Lancer before you set yourself up for trouble. You mate, funny as he is in his annoyance, has a point. Not only does he have a point, but it is normally YOUR point. What you need to ask yourself is, seeing as how you look like you will live to fight with him another day, do you really want to give him ammunition for this argument? Or do you want to be able to rub his nose in your ability to overcome? You know if you don't eat something he will hold it over you forever...but if you persevere...."

Lancer opened her eye again and glared at Marissa...then at her mate.

"Look," Marissa said, showing Lancer a plastic bottle with a straw in it. "It's a fruit drink...one with protein supplements. If you drink it, it will be as good as an energy bar."

Lancer's other eye opened. On the one hand she was really hurting and really nauseous. Even swallowing hurt. On the other...Marissa was right about Rodi.

She moved to sit up and grimaced in agony. Rodi winced too because she didn't shield him well enough.

"Stay still, Lancer," Marissa whispered compassionately. In the end she knew it wasn't a joke. Lancer had nearly died and it showed in her pallor and her extreme weakness. Every time Lancer moved, even if it was just to adjust her position, it left her muscles quaking. Marissa put the straw to Lancer's lips. The mutant shut her eyes tight, used every bit of assassin's control on her stomach, and drank.

Rodimus looked relieved and conflicted. "I guess I should thank you, but your methods leave something to be desired."

"You're welcome Asshole. You are relieved and happy and I know it. You thought that stupid leech had the best of both of you," Marissa told him, kissing his forehead like he was a small child. "For the record...I'm glad you made it, and thanks by the way for saving my life."

"I might point out that if not for us you wouldn't be have had to face that leech Marissa," Rodimus noted honestly. "You'd be at home, with your toes in Magnus' crotch."

"Don't apologize...that thing needed to be destroyed. What if it had gotten loose... or into the wrong hands?" Marissa pointed out.

Lancer's lips moved and she rolled over painfully in Rodi's lap to face up and mumble at him.

"What's she saying?" Marissa asked.

Rodimus hesitated and Lancer frowned up at him.

"You don't want to know. She cussing me out in Drazi. Geez! Take it easy! I will relate what you're saying...just not always word for word... especially not THAT word. Yes...I deserve it...It was stupid.... OK...PHENOMENALLY stupid! We'll deal with it when we get home... no...no I'm not looking forward to fighting it again either! Do NOT fang out," Rodimus ordered.

Lancer hissed in pain.

"See? Told you not to fang out," Rodimus said.

"Rodi...what is she talking about?" Magnus asked.

"Nothing! See? She's not talking at all"

They all just stared at him. "OK...not one of my better efforts," he admitted. Finally, with clear reluctance, he told them that the Quintissons in his universe had built and released nearly the same creature on Cybertron during his first term. He described how it made Springer, Kup, and the Decepticons who released it into vampiric zombies. Explaining how Springer looked and sounded as a vampire rekindled some of Rodi's enthusiasm for story telling but at the end, even more reluctantly, he told them how he disposed of it...by simply ejecting it and the power core it was feeding on into space.

Lancer's face and body twitched...Rodimus winced repeatedly. Obviously someone was in big trouble.

"I...I am so furious right now..." Magnus said mildly. "I think I want to hit someone. Hmm...who could I hit?"

"I will have you know your twin was right there next to me saying 'Great Job, Rodi,'" Rodimus said, a bit defensively. The twitching from his mate's hands and face in his lap increased.

"Ah," Magnus said, again mildly, "more evidence my twin is completely brain-damaged."

"Go with that!" Rodimus snarled. "It was how we did everything...solve the immediate crisis and let the bad guys go on their merry way! We really didn't have a means to destroy it. I wasn't an assassin then, and I didn't have my mutant love to protect me from its powers. We just celebrated that we weren't all dead and let it go." He paused briefly. Lancer's right index finger moved enough to actually point at him. "I am NOT using Vector Sigma as an excuse for every dumb thing I ever did!" Rodimus cried. He paused again. "Just most of them..." he muttered under his breath.

Lancer grimaced a little and he picked up her hand, "I should just let you cramp. That's what you get for pointing at me," he said quietly, rubbing her fingers and palm.

Magnus and the others just sat there, stupefied by the thought of the leech running loose in the universe. Even Hot Rod had his mouth hanging open.

"Rodimus what if that thing lands on an inhabited world?!" Marissa asked in horror.

"I'm sure we would have heard reports by now," Rodimus muttered. "Look! I forgot about the damned thing! It's not like I've had other stuff to worry about. When we get back, I'll send a team to look for it. Sky Lynx needs something to do anyway. Maybe he can earn his bragging rights for a change...Lancer, I won't let him fight it! Forget his ego...I'll send someone who obeys orders with him...I always do an...Cosmos is too slow to catch up to...Well, maybe you guys can track it with the Maelstrom!"

He fell silent. There was a lot more twitching. This resulted in Lancer moving her left arm too much and hissing with pain. Rodimus dutifully rubbed the seizing muscles the whole time she was clearly giving him a headful.

The others took turns explaining in detail their views on these events... except for Foul Play. She just stared at Rodimus and toyed with something in her hand.

When the others had taken their best advantage of having an excuse to rip into Rodimus, Foul Play stood up and glowered down at her boyfriend's twin.

"Will she live?" the Decepticon asked bluntly.

"Oh...Foul Play...I thought you knew. She'll be OK. She's just got inflamed nerve passages and really bad strains in just about every muscle. In a few days, she'll be fine."

"If you love her, why don't you fix her better?" Foul Play asked, looking over Lancer's scars with something like disdain.

"Foul Play...she's human. She's a warrior...the scars are inevitable," Rodimus said. He made no effort to hide how sad this made him, but he wondered what had come over Foul Play. So did Hot Rod.

"Will you live?" Foul Play asked.

"I'll be fine," Rodi answered. Her stare was disconcerting.

She gravely handed him something. It was the suicide chip.

"Oh...thanks. Forgot about that," Rodimus said.

"WHY DID YOU GIVE THAT TO ME?!" Foul Play shrieked at him.

Rodimus flinched back, hurting his ribs and his mate in the process.

"Um...In case I went postal on everyone...Foul Play...you know what I'm capab..." Rodimus started.

"NO! Asshole! I know why you have it! Why did you give it to ME? You think because I'm a Decepticon that I won't care?! That I could just kill you with no problem?!"

"Oh Primus!" Hot Rod said in a whisper. He suddenly realized why she been so quiet all day. He'd assumed she didn't feel well. Now he saw she'd been stewing.

Rodimus threw his head back and looked at the ceiling, wishing he had anything like "Primus" in his culture to call on. He barked one short, bitter laugh. This wasn't his day certainly.

He turned to face the seething woman in front of him. "Foul Play darling, I wasn't thinking anything of the sort. You give me far to much credit for thinking at ALL at that moment. I wanted someone to guard us all from further attack...and from me. That's all. Arcee was too out of it, the guys were helping me hold Lancer, and I wanted Marissa close because she's the only one besides me who could do CPR on Lancer if her heart stopped. Really. The thought that you're a Decepticon played no part. I didn't even think of it. I...I just trusted you with my gun and my life without even questioning how you would feel about it. I'm sorry I upset you."

On his lap his mate froze. Even her involuntary twitching ceased for a moment. You mean to tell me, you gave Foul Play your suicide chip? You gave your twin's girlfriend your suicide chip?

Rodimus winced. He winced again at Foul Play's severe expression. Her violet eyes seemed set to laser him straight through.

You didn't think she might have a problem with say...having to blow your head off? Lancer sent derisively.

Yesterday wasn't my best day either, love! I was just coming out of overload myself! And you were getting ready to rip yourself to shreds right in front of me! So no! I didn't really take her feelings into account! I took the fact she was still on her feet into account!

Foul Play continued to glare at him. She had spent the morning trying to dissect his ulterior motives...Decepticons always looked for ulterior motives.

A bit unnerved, Rodimus decided to play Hot Rod to his advantage and gave her his best "I'm too cute to be pissed at" smile. It would have looked better if one half of his face wasn't bruised past all recognition. Or maybe not.

That's my love, Lancer sent, When all else fails, pull emergency shit-eating grin.

And they wonder why I have a death wish... Rodi sent back to her.

"HEY!" Hot Rod yelled. "You don't get to smile at her that way!"

You'd think I'd get a bit of slack due to the fact it's a miracle we're all still alive, Rodimus thought to himself. Unfortunately he didn't really have privacy for that kind of thought. Lancer gave him a good dose of her discomfort as a reward.

Foul Play stared at him a moment longer, threw her hands up in disgust and stormed right out of the room.

"Asshole," Hot Rod said to his twin. He grabbed Rodi's hand-gun without asking and went after Foul Play into the blackened maze.

Rodimus banged the back of his head repeatedly against the wall. The pain he caused himself seemed almost comforting. At least it got Lancer to shut him out, so she quit yelling at him.

X

X

X

"Foul Play? Foul Play wait up!" Hot Rod called as he ran. He paused at an intersection, unsure of where she'd gone. There was just enough light for him to see her silhouette disappearing into the dark. She was running. He put on another burst of speed and closed on her fast. She was slowed by blinding tears, and he was powered by terror-fueled adrenaline that they would get lost and run into some other nasty Quint surprise. No contest. He leapt debris and caught up with her in seconds.

"Hey! Hey stop!" he told her gently, grabbing her arm and pulling her back towards him.

She cried out and threw her arms around him.

For a while they just stood there. She soaked his filthy shirt with her tears.

"This...will...never...work..." she said between heaving sobs.

"Foul Play...I know you're upset but..."

"I can't do this! I don't understand anything! I'm always suspicious, I'm always analyzing, and nothing I think I understand is true!" she confessed.

"Foul Play...he just wasn't thinking! I mean...he was...but not like that. Lancer was in trouble! If...if I was going to lose you, I know I wouldn't get anything right. He's a stupid jerk, but he didn't mean to hurt you! He just wouldn't do that to you!"

"I know that now! But I didn't this morning...and if can be suspicious of him what's to stop me from being suspicious of you? I can't help it Hot Rod! I don't understand trust! You must never tell your parents about us! I'll never fit in!"

"But Foul Play! You already fit it! Don't you see? If he thought of you as a Decepticon, even a little, would he have left you to guard his back while his mate was in trouble? He's a Prime! Would a Prime give an enemy a self-destruct device? What would an enemy have done? What would any of your people have done if my father gave them something like that?"

Foul Play stared at him, her beautiful eyes widening. "They would have used it...immediately," she whispered in shock.

"You didn't. You didn't even think of it until now. You thought he was saying he thought you wouldn't care about killing him...really he just trusted you so much it never dawned on him that you might, unless it was necessary. He put us all in your hands. He literally put his life in your hands, and more...Lancer's life in your hands. Foul Play...if something happened to her..he'd be as lost..as lost as I'd be without you."

Hot Rod wasn't sure how he was doing. In the half-light he could see her tears had increased, so he worried, until she grabbed him and forced him into the wall.

X

X

X

Magnus stood by the doorway to their little hidey-hole lab, head cocked to one side. He had been all set to charge out after Foul Play and his nephew but Marissa had stopped him. There was no sign of any immediate danger, and if they all were quiet, they could hear faint echoes of the youngsters' voices echoing back down the twisting halls. They couldn't make out any words, but while Foul Play was clearly crying, Hot Rod's voice was soothing. Obviously the kids weren't under attack.

"Don't you feel bad about eves-dropping?" Arcee asked. The fem-bot was looking much better. Her skin had color, her eyes were clear and full of mischief.

"With them out there alone in that maze? Not at all," Magnus retorted.

Springer snorted, "Not that you'd care even if we were in Metroplex, Ultra Magnus."

Magnus grinned sharkishly and went back to listening.

The voices had fallen silent.

The silence stretched.

Magnus was just getting ready to grab some lights when another sort of sound floated down the hallways.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Springer said.

The entire room froze and listened. Even Lancer picked up her head.

She looked up at her mate and smiled. Well...now I know what you're supposed to sound like! she sent. She put her head back down and closed her eyes again, still smiling. Rodimus made a face that was half-disgust, half amused resignation. He hid his face in his hand.

"They're crazy!" Marissa muttered. "It's not safe out there! We...we have to go stop them!"

Magnus stood stock still in the doorway. Part of him wanted to be furious. The recklessness! The sheer stupid audacity! Didn't they know where they were?! But as the sounds grew louder and the image of what was transpiring solidified in Magnus' imagination... (Here! Of all places!) These halls where Quintissons had ruled his life with terror...here! Here in the dark his nephew was off making a Decepticon absolutely shriek with pleasure.

A tremor shook Magnus body like the precursor to an earthquake. His hand flew to his mouth and he suddenly fell to his knees by the door. Marissa was terrified he was flashing for a brief instant until she realized that he was laughing so hard there were tears running down his face. He kept it quiet...he didn't want the kids in the hall to know they were listening in, but his face was turning red with effort. He pounded on the doorframe with his fist, threw his head back, and rocked himself helplessly while he roared without a sound. This escalated into him rocking back on his buttocks and kicking frantically with both feet.

The rest of the room had no choice but to join him, especially when things in the hall were most obviously coming to..well... a climax. Springer and Arcee clutched at each other. Marissa fell to her knees and held her stomach in agony.

Rodimus and Lancer just gazed into each other's eyes, grinning. They were both in too much pain to laugh, but they were enjoying Magnus' reaction even more than what they were hearing. Or rather, no longer hearing.

The Autobots and Marissa finally settled down a bit.

"I will never..." Magnus gasped, "look at this place...the same way... again!"

"Well," Marissa said, "I suppose that's a good thing. Not how I wanted to go about it but..."

"At least it was over soon enough," Arcee quipped. She clearly couldn't help herself, although Magnus threw her a pained and hateful glare from his spot by the doorway.

"It's Hot Rod, what'd you expect?" Springer snickered. "Fast is how he operates."

Lancer and Rodimus continued looking at each other. Rodimus raised his eyebrows. A few seconds later, things down the hallway picked up steam again.

"That," Lancer croaked, in a voice that was hoarse and painful, "was what I expected." She giggled a bit in spite of herself. "Owowowow."

Magnus curled up into a fetal position and gave up all hope of control or dignity.

X

X

X

A few hours later, Hot Rod finally led Foul Play back to the lab by the hand.

"I hope you weren't worried about us," he said.

The reaction he got was not at all what he expected.

Everyone but his twin dissolved into hysterical puddles on the floor.

"Nope. We didn't worry about you at all," Rodimus told him.

X

X

X

By the next morning, they were all much improved physically, and even Magnus could look at Hot Rod and Foul Play without starting to snicker. The two of them saw no reason to be embarrassed.

The bite wounds from the swarm were all scabbing up and even Arcee had her strength back. Marissa checked each and every bite throughly and saw no signs of infection. She complimented Rodimus on his medical kit.

"I spent my first year as a human marooned Marissa," he reminded her. "Lancer had a small medical kit, but she ended up having to fry a lot of my torture wounds to disinfect them. Let's just say I'd rather not ever have to do that again."

"I don't blame you...now let's see those ribs," Marissa said.

"They're much better," Rodimus told her. He smiled at her from both eyes today, his face only slightly blackened around the cheek and eye-socket.

She crossed her arms and said nothing.

"OK, fine," he sighed.

"Do you need help with your shirt?" Hot Rod asked.

"Nope...got it," Rodimus said. He pulled the armor off a little stiffly, but with no obvious pain.

Marissa whistled. "They're set! Did you set them somehow? Even the bruising is almost gone."

"I told you it would heal," Rodimus said.

"I hate you," Magnus said. "When Optimus ran me over I was in the hospital for weeks, and laid up for longer."

Rodimus made a face, "Would you like me to see if the Jabez can upgrade your healing systems for you?"

"No thanks," Magnus said. He sighed. "Sorry, Rodi. What are we going to do now?"

"We go back to looking for what we came for, but I thought you might like to take a look down the that other wing before we go any further," Rodimus suggested carefully.

Magnus stared at Rodimus long and hard to see if the assassin was joking. Rodi's greenish eyes stared back at him calmly. Apparently not.

"Why in the hell would you think that?" Magnus finally growled.

Rodimus didn't waver. "Because there are probably records there of what they did to you...and your brother. With the power on, we could give them a look. I don't like what was done to Shellshock and me, but having some of the Jabez's files has been... helpful."

Magnus paled. The thought of returning to his cell block made him weak at the knees... but... Rodimus was right. Knowing the information might be there, Magnus couldn't turn away. And then there was knowing how those big, scary halls had been recently violated.

Magnus snickered a bit hysterically, but managed to control himself. "OK...let's go."

X

X

X

Going back to the intersection and taking the left fork was both harder and easier than Magnus imagined. The place crushed him with memories, but Marissa took his hand and held him up. Springer made adroit and sarcastic comments about the decor. Arcee looked actively for clues to help her commander and was breaking into cabinets with a vengeance. Hot Rod and Foul Play held hands and looked together. Once in a while, Hot Rod lifted Foul Play onto his shoulders so she could see something higher up. She reported what she saw in her crisp, musical way. Their voices all combined into a sort of audio life-ring which kept Magnus from floating away into his past.

Rodi and Lancer completed his hold on the now with their ridiculous appearance. Lancer was much better, her tremors had stopped and her pain had subsided enough to stop the morphine, but her limbs were still weak and prone to cramping. She wasn't able to move enough to even get properly dressed, so Rodimus had done some creative things to the thermal blankets to protect her modesty.

I look like a TV dinner! she complained to her mate.

Well, I certainly don't mind if you go around naked for the next few days, Rodimus answered her.

She quit grumbling.

Every muscle in her body had been strained to their limits and she tired very easily. After just a few steps she needed to sit down, a fact which obviously frustrated the hell out of her.

So Rodimus gave her a piggy-back ride.

Her long, silky blonde hair was still unbraided, and as her energy levels reset themselves it collected static. As a result, it tended to float a bit and was constantly falling into Rodi's face and clinging there.

The brightening halls of the Quintisson cell block sounded with Rodi's repeated "ppphhtt!" as he tried to blow offending strands away from his eyes and mouth.

Magnus couldn't help himself. He shuddered with laughter at intervals, imagining what his cruel masters would think of such a crew poking through their mighty stronghold.

Marissa wavered between being delighted with him and worried about him.

Only when they finally got to his actual cell, did the group settle down and stand in a strange sort of reverence. No one moved past the threshold until Magnus did. There were no lights in this place. The dim reflections from the hallway were just as he remembered them...but the perspective was different. The scents and the sense of cold were new.

He walked in and turned 360 to get the full picture. There were remains of the shattered manacles he had broken when Kup's unit had arrived. He remembered his first view of the old warrior and how threatening the now trusted face had seemed. He remembered in his wordless understanding of the universe at that time, the only safety was in solitude. He had loved the dark...loved the silence...because an open door brought light, company, and pain.

There were the gouges on the wall he had wrought over and over with his broken fingers. Fingers the Quints had broken because even shackled they feared him.

Then it hit him, perhaps for the first time, how much more they feared him than he feared them. Everything they'd done to control him...was out of fear...and he'd broken their control anyway. Nothing they'd wanted him to be had stopped him from becoming who he was.

He was no longer afraid of the light...and no longer alone either.

He turned and looked at the group of people in the doorway. They were all staring at him, waiting respectfully.

Springer and Arcee stood side-by-side at almost attention. Hot Rod had his head cocked as if asking his uncle a silent question. Foul Play looked all around her as if trying to memorize everything. Rodimus was leaning his mate's weight against a wall and had that ironic little half-smile on his lips...and Marissa. Marissa had taken two steps into the room behind him. She had her hands clasped up in front of the chest as if in prayer. Her eyes swam with tears that didn't fall.

She was just the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, with the lights from behind her lighting up her hair in a fiery halo.

He tried to speak, failed, and cleared his throat.

"Nothing here to see," he managed.

She launched herself at him and threw herself into his arms. Definitely not a sensation he ever expected to feel in this place.

Rodimus smiled. "Just a bit of history?" he asked. "Past tense?"

"Past tense," Magnus agreed. He turned his back on the cell and they walked away from it together.

"PPHHHT!" Rodimus said. "Woman! We have GOT to find a way to contain this stuff!"

It didn't take them long to find the adjacent lab where all the "work" on Magnus had been done. They decided not to go through it all there so Rodimus simply took out his hacking equipment and copied everything in the system...then for good measure he copied the rest of the network.

"How can that little gizmo hold all of that information?" Arcee asked incredulously. Rodi's storage device was smaller than her index finger.

"There's a Matrix-style crystal in there...about the size of marble," Rodimus told her.

She looked at him blankly.

"About this big," Rodimus showed her with his fingers. "That's what they do...hold massive quantities of information. We know what they do, just not how to program them. If we can figure that out, I might even give us a slim chance against the Jabez."

Continued in Part E


	5. Chapter 5

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part E

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part E

Continued from Part D

After they were done, they found the gladiator arena. It too was just as Magnus remembered, except that the stands were covered with dust, not cheering spectators.

He was amazed how little affect it had on him...and how much affect it had on Hot Rod.

The boy did OK until he found receipt for the price of admission.

Then he just went ballistic.

"THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE MEANEST, CRUELEST, DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!"

"Hot Rod?" Foul Play asked.

He stood in the stands with his hands clenched and his face scarlet.

"LOOK AT THIS!" he roared. "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY CREDITS FOR A SHOW! ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY CREDITS!"

"Err.." Springer said, "The last time I saw that look on his face he was kicking my ass!"

"Yeah," Arcee answered blandly, "He saves getting upset for when it's important." She still hadn't quite decided to let her mate off the hook for that fight. Springer rolled his eyes and wondered if she ever would.

Hot Rod was still foaming with rage. "HOW DARE THEY? How dare they charge MONEY for letting people watch my uncle suffer?! How dare they charge to make him kill people?! How dare they make anyone die...FOR MONEY?!"

Magnus looked gravely at his nephew and didn't know what to say. It infuriated him too.

"I swear to you Ultra Magnus...I swear we will exterminate them for this," Hot Rod hissed between clenched teeth.

Magnus thought about what Optimus Prime would say to such a vow from his son. He tried to come up with something to mollify the boy's rage, to calm him down and change this moment into something more healthy.

What came out was, "OK."

Marissa whirled on Rodimus. She wasn't at all happy with this unexpected development.

Rodimus looked at her and smiled most unhelpfully. "What are you looking at me for? Everyone needs a hobby." Grinning, he hiked his now sleeping mate up higher on his shoulders, turned, and went back inside.

X

X

X

The next morning (they were keeping Earth time for simplicity's sake), they went in search of a way into the older structure under the Quint base. Using their ultra sensitive Jabez scanner showed them where the ancient structure came close to the surface. Unfortunately the way was past the rotting, reeking leech carcass, and it was blocked.

Coming up on the dead end at the back of yet another Quint warehouse full of dusty boxes and equipment, the group looked around for a way in.

"Looks like the Quints sealed this entrance permanently," Magnus said, looking at Rodimus. "I suppose you have some sneaky assassin's trick to get us through?"

"Well, I suppose I could dazzle you with some refined skill or another, but actually I was just thinking of using that nice cannon Hot Rod likes so much," Rodimus told him. He put Lancer down and morphed, then transformed.

Most of the dents from the leech battle were gone as if they had never happened.

"You ever get...I dunno...confused with all those different forms?" Springer wanted to know.

"Only in dreams," Rodimus answered. "Sometimes those get a bit out of hand though... especially when sex factors in."

"I'm sorry I asked," Springer groaned.

"Oh, Rodimus," Lancer said, "You are an insufferable liar!" She was mostly back to her old self, but her legs still exhausted quickly.

The truck snickered and the trailer split open. Hot Rod openly drooled as the cannon rose up, took aim, and blasted the high security doors the Quints had used to seal the passage down.

"I gotta get me one of those," the young twin slobbered.

When the smoke cleared they saw the cave-like passage was just barely high enough for a Quint to pass through. Rodimus decided to morph back to human form.

"The Jabez are taller than humans, average is about 8 feet, but I doubt they built to accommodate Autobots. Besides, seeing things from their perspective may be useful."

"Yeah, well just keep in mind we may look like lunch from some perspectives too OK? I haven't even been outside, but I've had enough of the wildlife," Magnus told him.

It took them about 15 minutes to walk the length of the passage. They all had hand held lights and a real case of the jitters.

Every indication was this was a Jabez building, and everything Rodimus had told them about the Jabez made them think of the Quints as amateur evil.

In spite of his relentless mantra to expect nothing, ever, Rodimus was caught completely flat-footed when they finally reached the first, hexagon shaped chamber.

"OH!" Arcee cried, "They're pretty!" Then her hand flew to her mouth and she looked at Rodi guiltily.

He threw his (thankfully) unbreakable glow stick to the ground and stood there cursing.

The walls were about 20 feet tall and engraved with skillful stone relief sculptures. The images their lights revealed were graceful, elegant, and, to Rodi's extreme consternation, beautiful.

It was definitely Jabez he was looking at. The same huge eyes, the long necks, and the four-part hand segments with two thumbs each...and yet.

What were spidery and stilted limbs on the aliens he knew, were here depicted as slim, graceful, and elegant. The enormous bug-like eyes he had come to hate seemed elfish and...innocent. The long greasy hair that had run into his circuits and then his bleeding human flesh flowed in waving ripples down the backs of the sculptures.

The biggest discrepancy was in their skin. There was not a wrinkle to be seen. The Jabez Rodimus was familiar with all looked like their skin was melting off their bones. It sagged and pulled in soggy folds that had nothing to do with age, but with some unnatural malady. He remembered their hands on his flesh...how the blood vessels had pulsed visibly...how the skin had sort of clung behind their movement to everything they touched as if it was slightly adhesive.

He shuddered and briefly flashed. He relived a moment when one of them had covered his human mouth and nose with a hand to restrain him while taking blood from his neck. He had felt smothered, and in his effort to breath had felt the stretchy skin between the hand segments actually fill his nostrils.

Lancer didn't let him stay there more than a second or two. She rubbed his back, but her mental contact helped much more than her physical one.

"This is all wrong!" he whispered. He saw other details too...there were females, even more ethereal and refined than the males. And youngsters! Tiny beings with wide, inquisitive eyes staring up adoringly at the adults. He started seeing the images as a whole...the whole thing was a tribute to family life and the stages of a young Jabez going through a loving education to adulthood. The scene looped back on itself, with the young Jabez becoming the parents in the scenes of later life that raised the newborns at the start of the frieze. It was a seamless, highly artistic, and utterly peaceful depiction of life.

It filled Rodimus with fury as he spun round and round taking it all in.

"THIS IS ALL WRONG!" he roared. "THEY AREN'T LIKE THIS!"

No one answered. They certainly weren't about to challenge him in this state.

"THIS IS ALL A LIE!" he insisted.

"My love, maybe here it was different, or maybe in our past it was different," Lancer whispered.

"How could they fall so far if this was true?! What possible calamity could have wrought such a ...a... degradation?!" Rodimus frothed. "This has to be a lie!"

"Why would they bother to carve a lie into their own city?" Hot Rod wondered.

Rodimus whirled on him like an angry rattlesnake.

Hot Rod held hands up in surrender, "I'm not arguing! I'm just wondering!"

Rodimus continued to glare at Hot Rod, who utterly unconsciously smiled that ingratiating smile. Rodi's entire frame shook with wrath and Magnus was just about to get between his nephew and the assassin when Rodimus suddenly threw his hands up in the air in disgust.

"You're right!" he told his twin. "There's absolutely no reason for that! I don't want to accept this, but I think I have to. I just want to hate them! Pure and simple with no complications! I don't want to wonder what happened to them! I don't want to feel sorry for them!" His fists clenched and he whirled, aiming for the wall. His fist was caught, barely, by his mate.

"Do not break your hand on the wall," she said. "I'm in enough pain, thanks."

"You are spoiling a perfectly good temper tantrum, Lady Assassin," Rodimus growled.

"I love you too," she smiled, and kissed him.

X

X

X

They spent the next day and a half looking through the remnants of the ancient Jabez city. The art on the walls was an ever-present testament to various aspects of Jabez life and culture.

"They're worse than the Egyptians," Marissa remarked.

Rodimus, walking past a scene with small children playing some sort of game, scowled and muttered to himself as he walked.

"What happened to these people?" Arcee wondered. "Where did they go? And if...if the Jabez in your dimension have a similar background then how did they end up like they did?"

"Yeah...and where did they get all these crystals?" Springer asked, shining his light on the "ball" in the game on the wall. It gleamed back at him with light that seemed to come from within as well as from his glowstick. "They obviously had plenty if they had spares to hang on the walls."

"What I want to know is why Rodi won't let us take any of them?" Foul Play asked incredulously. "Aren't they what we came for?"

Rodi turned to look at her, his eyes flickering emerald. "You don't break up the art work," he told her.

"But...but Rodimus...you hate them! Don't you?" Foul Play asked. She was truly sounding befuddled. The look of consternation on her face was obvious even in the dim light. She looked to Hot Rod for help, but he only shrugged at her.

It took them a while to navigate and map the underground warrens that comprised the city...and it was a city. Unlike the Quint maze though, this had the feel of a well planned, but organically grown home for people and businesses. For the most part, there seemed to be an overall plan, but they also found places under construction, places in poor repair. The first chambers they came to after the "courtyard" entrance were probably residences. They were simpler, with few carvings, and the remnants of things that might have been wooden furniture.

All of it was amazingly well preserved, but when Hot Rod curiously touched some of it, it fell into dust.

Crystals in these rooms were implanted in the ceilings and walls, and there was always art work there, if no where else, even if it was just elaborate, scrolling designs.

Once in a while they saw distinctive tracks in the dust which told them the Quints had been through before them. They could see crude holes in the wall where crystals had obviously been roughly removed.

"I guess they didn't respect the art work," Foul Play noted.

"They don't respect anything's right to remain whole and undisturbed, Foul Play," Magnus told her.

"Oh..." Foul Play said. "Ice cream."

Magnus blinked at her in confusion. "Are you hungry Foul Play?"

"No...I was just thinking. Rodimus doesn't like this art work...he doesn't understand it, but he respects its right to exist...like the Autobots didn't understand ice cream, but they protected the way humans live anyway. And maybe some day, Rodi will understand the art, and it will still be there to understand...like now, we understand about ice cream."

Magnus shook his head as if to clear it.

Hot Rod took Foul Play's hand and led her on. To his uncle he said, "just go with it."

"Oh...quit grinning Ingrate," Magnus growled, "and don't pretend you got her either."

Hot Rod turned back, grinned bigger, and kept right on going.

Foul Play, ignoring both of them, turned to Hot Rod and asked, "Is THAT why Optimus Prime never tries to wipe the Decepticons out?"

Hot Rod didn't answer her, he just laughed...and unlike the Quintisson halls above them, the sound didn't seem at all out of place in these corridors of graceful carvings of playing children and thriving nature.

X

As they got deeper into the city, they found buildings with a more industrious feel. More industrious, but not industrialized. For all that the chambers had obviously been carved for some form of work or business, the ever-present carvings and crystals were all around them. The subject matter of the art changed room by room, and they had to assume that what was depicted in each place was what took place in each section.

They found walls showing weaving, food preparation, furniture making, and even child-birth. They found one frieze where Jabez gather at tables, each holding a shining stone in front of them.

"What are they doing?" Marissa wondered.

"It's a library," Rodimus stated. "They're getting information like you would from a book."

"Rodi," Lancer protested. "I know you are absolutely certain, but you have no way of knowing that..."

"Lady Assassin? Do I give you grief about your funny feelings?" Rodimus asked her.

"No...not since Uni...not since we had that one really bad day," Lancer replied.

"Well, quit it then. You get to have your weird mutant things and I get to... I get to pick up on god-damned Matrix crystals..." He turned around, head cocked as if listening. "Not here...the Quints took all of them from here...they took the obvious ones..."

"Love...?" Lancer asked. She felt him reaching, but not for her. Instead she felt his conviction. He spun in a circle again.

"Oh...I think he's really lost it this time!" Springer said.

"Springer, if I'm wrong, I will be your personal slave for twenty-four hours, but as the only Matrix-Bearer in the room, I don't think you should take that bet!" Rodimus said. He sounded almost gleeful. He stopped spinning, turned to an exit that was off their prescribed search pattern and took off running.

Like a bloodhound on a scent, he led them from one room to another. They found the first one just sitting on a high shelf. It was about the size of a baseball. Rodimus jumped up, caught the carved, stone shelf with his fingers, swiped the crystal off, and tossed it to Hot Rod all in one smooth motion.

"Feel anything?" Rodi asked.

"I feel like you've lost your mind," Hot Rod informed him, "Or maybe it's just me. Hmm...down in a cave, following a crazy man who looks just like me, oh, and sleeping with a Decepticon and loving every second of it. Yeah. Probably just me...hey this thing glows!"

"That's because it's a light bulb," Rodimus said. "Let's bring it along, shall we?" He took off again.

The others glared after him and made as if to run after him.

Lancer crossed her arms and refused to move a step.

"Lancer?" Marissa asked.

"Don't bother chasing him," Lancer told her. "He's coming back."

"Why? Is something wrong?" Magnus asked. His mind was all on hungry leeches and swarming blood-suckers.

"Because in his excitement, my love has forgotten that I am in no shape for running all over the place like a three year old. It is very nice he can sense these things, but they've been sitting there for who knows how long, and they will still be there when we WALK in!" She hissed the last part at her sheepish looking mate as he peered around the corner.

"Sorry Lancer!" Rodimus said, grinning.

Magnus shook his head. "Rodimus, you are the only person I know who can weaponize both music AND a smile."

X

X

X

They followed the lunatic more slowly after that, but he led them, unerringly, from one crystal to the next. He found everything from very tiny stones Marissa coveted for earrings, to one the size of a bowling ball which he graciously let Springer carry. They found them in the shards of old, decayed machinery, in workrooms, and just laying on the "street".

Each time he would pronounce its purpose, and the others found it harder and harder to decry his conviction.

"Is this how it is for you with the Matrix back home?" Magnus asked, as Rodi handed him a "data storage stone".

"No...that was more like...more like having Lancer in my head. I mean, these little things...they have a job, but the Autobot Matrix has almost a personality. The other leaders' memories were there, but the Matrix itself has a sort of spark too...like it welcomed them in, but it almost has a will of its own as well. It was weird. I can't explain it very well, but it almost feels like you've got a friend watching your back."

"Sounds down-right creepy to me," Springer said seriously.

"It took some getting used to," Rodimus said, "But I was so overwhelmed anyway that I forgot about it pretty quickly. Really, getting used to it was almost easier than getting used to blocking it out."

"You shut it out?" Hot Rod asked.

"Sure. Hot Rod, deep down I'm still nuts. I can't scream, I have flash-backs, I get to spend my free time killing little kids. I don't want to contaminate it with all that stuff, and I don't want Optimus exposed to it either. When I was taken, he knew I wasn't dead because he felt some of what they did to me. When I came back, a year later, he knew who I was before I said a word. It's a link between us. If I serve our people better by being crazy enough to do what I do, that's fine, but I am not bringing Optimus along for the ride. I'm not infecting the next sucker, I mean "Chosen One" either. It...it still tries to reach me once in a while, but over the years I think it's given up." He fished around in a pile of small rocks at his feet and pulled out another marble-sized matrix stone.

It sparkled nicely for him. "LOOKY! A frigging rechargeable battery! Charge it up Love," he said, tossing it to Lancer. She sighed, and gingerly pushed some of her power between her fingers with the stone in between. She expected the energy to just come back to her finger on the other side, but it remained in the stone.

She looked at her mate, a bit surprised in spite of herself. She could feel the feedback he was getting from the stones, but it was such a slight response she had a hard time sharing his certitude.

"It worked," she said. She saw her mate watching the stone with narrowed eyes. He was thinking something, but he was blocking her.

"Give it to Arcee," he told Lancer. She looked at him sideways, and did so.

The Fem-bot took the crystal and inspected it.

"Uh-huh...give it to Hot Rod, Arcee," Rodi ordered.

"Why?" she asked.

"Just seeing something," he said neutrally.

"Please," Arcee said, "even you don't think we're buying that."

Rodimus didn't answer her so she sighed, stomped one foot very slightly, and gave the stone to Hot Rod.

Hot Rod took it and gave Rodi a look that said "now what?"

"Think of it as a battery," Rodimus told him.

"Think of it as a battery?" Hot Rod asked sarcastically. "You are off your wheels Rodi...OUCH!"

They all jumped when a brief jolt visibly shocked him.

"Chosen One my ass," Rodimus muttered to himself.

"Yeah! Well next time experiment on yourself O Chosen One! That HURT!" Hot Rod scolded. He stuck him singed fingers in his mouth.

"What are you trying to prove?" Magnus asked, a bit sharply.

Rodimus didn't answer him. "We need to find some raw crystals. Ones that aren't already set up for a job. We'll know a lot more if we can."

Once again he set off, and Marissa was strangely glad for Lancer's injuries. Focused as he was, Rodimus seemed suddenly tireless, but that description did not apply to the rest of them. He was even more impatient with lunch than usual and tried more of his experiments with the crystals on them while they ate.

This time though he was careful to play mad-scientist with the "light-bulb" stone rather than the battery.

The others found, with a blend of disappointment and relief, that Hot Rod, Rodimus, and Lancer were the only ones who could get it to turn on and off.

"It only responds to me because I'm an energy shaper," Lancer argued. "I'm probably lighting it by myself. I DO glow in the dark as a good mutant should."

"Nice try Lady Assassin. That be bullshit," Rodi said.

She narrowed her eyes at him and looked disgusted. "I am NOT a bloody Autobot," she protested.

"Neither are they!" Rodimus said, pointing to the Jabez carved on the walls all around them. "I don't think it has a damned thing to do with that. I think the whole 'Chosen' thing is crap too. These stupid little rocks hold and store energy or information. I bet the Jabez have a genetic tendency to be a bit telepathic, and they found a way to program these crystals to respond to their mental commands. Instant data transfer from one mind to the next through the stones. That's how their civilization advanced so quickly. They didn't need time to gain an education, they just absorbed it. All their tech is based on these crystals, and somehow the Quints, and then the Autobots got their hands on a big one. Maybe even big enough to house something huge, like living minds. Hot Rod and I just happen to think on the right frequency. All the Primes probably did, and if we are actually chosen, that is probably the primary reason. Make all the puns out of that you like. I'm sure leadership potential is a requirement too, but the ability to 'hear' and connect with the crystal is surely a deciding factor. As for you my mind-linked mate, it's no surprise you and I ride the same wavelength too. Therefore, the rocks like you. The Matrix likes you too...remember the very bad day?"

"You sure know how to take the fun out of things," Springer said bitterly.

"The Matrix...the Matrix is special," Hot Rod insisted. "I know it is! There's a lot more to it than...than that light-bulb!"

"Of course there is Hot Rod," Lancer said firmly, reassuringly. "Rodi's not putting it down...but if it is special, it is because your ancestors MADE it special. The people who put in their knowledge, their wisdom, and their very souls made it special. They are the ones who chose. It's not some mystical force. It's just love."

"I have to disagree with you there, Lady Assassin. Love is the most mystical force I can think of," Rodimus smiled.

"You're such a romantic, Rodi," Marissa groaned, rolling her eyes.

Springer and Hot Rod made gagging noises.

X

X

X

They kept going down, down, down. Their ears popped as they went. Magnus estimated they were some two miles beneath the surface when Rodimus found what he was looking for. They had long since ceased seeing signs of Quintisson intrusion. The "tunnel" they took down was nothing more than a crack in the wall, and it was so carefully hidden, they doubted anyone would have found it without Rodi's ability to sense crystals. Certainly, the opening was too small for Quints to use.

They ended up on a pathway that only allowed them to go single file for long stretches. At times it was a simple winding tunnel. At other times it was worn stairs. When they could go side-by-side, Hot Rod peppered his twin with questions about the crystals in general and the Matrix specifically.

"You know, everything I think could be wrong, Hot Rod," Rodimus cautioned. "And even if I'm right, none of it may apply in this dimension. You have a different origin from me, the Matrix may too."

"You might be wrong," Hot Rod said, "But you aren't. And you're pretty sure you aren't or you wouldn't be making your poor tired mate walk down all these steps."

Rodimus looked at his twin slyly and snorted. Magnus, listening to this exchange with fascination, bopped Rodimus on the back of the head.

"He's right about that and you know it, so give," Magnus said.

"What do you want to know? It's just a theory," Rodimus said.

"With you, it's more like an educated guess," Magnus said. "Give."

"OK. Fine. Ask," Rodi said.

"Why do the crystals pick up on our thoughts?" Hot Rod asked. "Are they alive?"

"No...or at least, I don't think most of them are. Lots of people believe crystals somehow enhance and focus mental energy. These must just be better at it than most. I know Vector Sigma is alive, and I'm not sure about the Matrix, but I think it is too. Certainly I think the Autobot leaders I've talked to in there are real consciousnesses. They respond to what's going on - it's not just a recording of their lives. I'm sure only certain crystals can do that though. The little ones just don't have the capacity."

"If we both are on this supposed frequency then why do you feel them and what they do, and I don't?" Hot Rod asked.

Rodimus sighed, "Experience I think. Hot Rod, I carried the Matrix for a long time. I got used to 'hearing' it. That was a good thing too, because smart notions like 'running away and never coming back would be bad,' had to come from somewhere. Then there's Lancer, and the more I think about it, the more I suspect that the channels we get to each other through are the same ones the Matrix uses. She and I 'send' thoughts back and forth constantly."

"A femme on the brain!" Springer cried. "No wonder you're so messed up I say!"

He was promptly assaulted by every woman in the group besides Lancer, including his mate.

"Hey Springer," Lancer said. "You know when Rodi and I have sex the orgasms are doubled...and sometimes they ricochet around for a while."

Springer just stared at her.

"That shut him up," Lancer said, satisfied.

Rodimus looked at his mate and arched an eyebrow at her, "You know, unlike my twin, I prefer to keep some aspects of my time with my love private."

"Hey! It is NOT my fault you were eves-dropping," Hot Rod exclaimed. "Get back to the subject!"

"Hot Rod, with this crew you should just assume they are spying on you," Rodimus said in his best "wise Prime" voice. Magnus grinned and didn't argue.

Rodi looked sage for a moment and then went on. "Now, where was I? Oh...from my mate, who was possessed as you know, I learned to shield myself from tele/empathic invasion. This is a BIG advantage in our universe. The last thing I need is a Convert or just a telepathic jerk reading my mind and spilling our plans to the Jabez. I'm sure that a strong telepath could break into my mind if it came to a contest, but not without me being aware of it. He'd have to take on Lancer too, and in a battle of wills, which is what telepathy mostly amounts to, this hypothetical moron would have a real fight on his hands against the two of us. I had the strength of will NOT to invade her mind when she was giving birth to Edana, and if I held out then, I can probably keep out anyone." He didn't look proud of this achievement, only sad. "In any case, Little Brother, I have had a lot more practice with mental gymnastics than you. Therefore, I am awarded the special title of 'Rock Detector.'"

"What was it like when the Matrix chose you?"

"Like getting hit in the head with a big rock," Rodimus answered his twin very seriously. Hot Rod hit him. "I mean it! There were other things going on too. Galvatron had just finished kicking the snot out of me, and I was inside...I was inside something that was about to explode...and I was suddenly all nice and tall like so my balance was off... I had a headache, I was dizzy, and I think the damned thing anesthetized me for a while because everything moved in slow motion for hours. My guess now is, it was solidifying its connections to my brain and keeping me from going immediately AWOL."

Hot Rod groaned. "That sounds fun," he said sarcastically.

This conversation was interrupted by yet another long, treacherous span of stairs which they had to take single file. The stairs themselves were in fairly good shape for their age, but they were meant for a Jabez's longer limbs. Even Magnus found them a bit awkward. Lancer, usually the most graceful of all of them, had real problems and had to sit down and rest so her legs would quit shaking.

Finally, they started seeing a bluish light that was clearly not from their glow-sticks. Reaching the end of the tunnel at last, they stood at the bottom with their eyes wide.

"Oh wow,' Rodimus said.

The bluish light was radiating at them from a lava fissure in the ground, but unlike Earth's fiery core, this lava glowed a cool white. It lapped along the "shores" of an underground cavern of more standard rock and formed crystalline spires along the edges as it cooled. Most of these structures were partly remelted, cracked or flawed in some way, but here and there were some that were flawless.

It was, quite simply, beautiful.

"And me without my camera," Marissa breathed.

"My stupid com-eye is recording everything. You know, to a primitive society, this would seem like a super-natural place," Lancer mused.

"What'd ya mean primitive?" Springer cried. "Primus! Even I can feel this place!"

"That's because these crystals aren't altered yet," Rodimus theorized.

Arcee picked up a small stone she just found by her feet. She smiled in wonder when it glowed.

"Here," Rodimus said. "Give it to me."

She reluctantly put it in his outstretched hand. He concentrated on it. Nothing happened.

He smiled, and gave it back to her. "This one's yours," he said.

"What...what will it do?" she asked, feeling a bit awe-inspired and overwhelmed. She still hadn't fully come to terms with the notion of more than one Matrix crystal, let alone her own, even if it was the size of a pea.

"Nothing probably," Rodimus said. "You didn't have a plan for it, and we don't know how the Jabez programed them. But it's got your imprint now, so keep it. We need to take blank ones back to Wheeljack and Perceptor for study, so we'll have to make sure not to touch those."

They all had fun picking out a small stone for themselves. Then they gloved their hands and collected crystals of a variety of sizes and shapes which they put in their packs without touching them. They wrapped them carefully in some of Rodi's ubiquitous thermal blankets. Lancer even lightly climbed some of the gleaming translucent stalagmites and bought down some larger stones from higher up, away from the remelting lava flow.

Once wrapped, the collection made several sizable bundles. Marissa turned to face the stairway back up and suddenly felt very tired.

"It's going to be a long, heavy walk," she muttered.

"We'll take turns," Foul Play said resolutely.

"No we won't," Rodimus said. He grinned.

"You aren't carrying those by yourself," Foul Play told him. Even she was catching on to his tendency to overcompensate. It mystified her, but she saw it.

"Of course not, Magnus is," Rodimus said.

The City Commander didn't answer. He just bored into Rodi's oh-so-innocent expression with cold, steely eyes.

"Or, we could just throw them into my sub-space linked pack and not worry about the weight," Rodimus went on.

Magnus ignored the snickering, pushed Hot Rod and his light-bulb to the front, and started them up the stairs without a word. He saw Hot Rod's shoulders shaking and said, "You aren't as funny as he thinks he is."

His nephew turned and answered, "I don't know what was worse about that remark... your pronoun trouble or the fact I understood you."

Magnus felt himself well revenged by the time they got to the top. Lancer claimed she couldn't make the climb and was riding piggy-back again. This cured Rodi quite well of his over-abundant energy. When they got back to the entrance to the mine all of them applauded weakly when Rodi collapsed to the floor with the rest of them.

They slept 6 hours without posting watch.

Continued in Part F


	6. Chapter 6

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part F

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part F

Continued from Part E

After recovering from their shock at their own carelessness and the fact nothing with teeth had taken advantage of it, they set off again. Once in a while Rodi detoured slightly from the main road back up to filch another crystal. He finally started leaving some that were "repeats" of the types he already had, especially when it became clear that his loyal followers were going to string him up if they didn't get back to the shuttle in due haste.

Even the fantastic carvings with their insight into Jabez life started wearing thin for all of them. Rodimus in particular had decided that whatever life on this nameless world had been like once, it was no longer a factor in the Jabez of his time and dimension. This culture, dedicated as it was to family and knowledge, was a wholesome past. The Jabez he knew were anything but healthy. Nevertheless, in spite of his discomfort and the ever-present threat of flash-backs, the assassin Prime should have been paying attention.

Fortunately, his companions weren't quite as oblivious to the scenery as he was.

Springer was tired. His feet hurt...and in spite of the energy bars he was as hungry as he'd ever been. Pizza. Pizza would hit the spot. He wondered to himself, as they trudged along, if love of pizza had become an emotional need for him. In spite of the walking, he'd had plenty of calories, so his body shouldn't be giving him a hard time about fuel. An Autobot's body never did that. You either needed to recharge or you didn't, but you didn't crave things like this. Then he wondered, with some disturbance, if these cravings would go away once he was back on energon. Would he long for pizza? If so, what else would he long for?

It occurred to him that Rodimus might know the answer to that, but Springer dismissed that though almost at once. Rodimus didn't crave food even when he was in human form. Stupid Asshole.

He turned to glare at Rodimus who was trotting up behind them after another one of his forays into a side room. They had quit waiting for him and were simply following their own tracks back to the surface for the most part. He would dart off, and then catch up with them. Springer sighed at the man's disgusting enthusiasm for all of this and glanced into a side room as they walked past...wondering if anything in there would "call" the Autobot Commander from another universe.

What the triple changer saw brought him up short.

"Hey! Warn a girl when you hit the brakes!" Arcee said, nearly colliding with Springer's immense back.

Springer didn't answer her. He just gawked.

Arcee followed his gaze and he heard her gasp as though strangled.

There, on the far wall of the next room, was a faint, primitive, and unmistakable Autobot symbol, carved fluidly into the wall with Jabez all around it.

Rodimus took one look and flew into the room as though launched.

Magnus and Hot Rod, who were up ahead debating this and that about the Matrix and how it had gotten to the Autobots in the first place, took a minute to realize no one else was behind them.

They came running back to find Marissa and Foul Play looking confused, Springer and Arcee leaning on each other, Lancer growling, and Rodimus on his knees in front of an elaborate frieze.

Magnus made the now habitual 360 turn to inspect every wall and felt like falling down himself.

"Oh Primus!" Hot Rod said.

"Yes...Yes I think that's it exactly," Magnus replied weakly.

X

X

X

The scene before them, laid cheerfully out in sculpted stone was quite simple.

A ball of fire fell from the sky.

The ball of fire snuffed out in a shallow lake on the surface. A hunting party of Jabez went to investigate. A robot with an ancient version of the Autobot insignia fell out of the fire ball into the lake. The hunting party made a floating stretcher from trees and their precious crystals and brought the injured robot to the city. They repaired him. He stayed a while, sharing precious knowledge with them, and then left in the same manner he arrived. (Magnus could only assume the fire-ball was in fact a ship of some sort, but that wasn't how it was depicted.) Before he went though, the robot's new friends presented him with a gift...a large crystal. One whole panel was devoted to the robot putting the crystal in his chest while the Jabez around him smiled and celebrated. The next scenes were not of the robot, but of the Jabez advancing their technology and building their first space-ship.

"Oh Primus," Hot Rod said again.

Rodimus hit the cold floor with all his might, once, twice, three times with his right fist. They heard the bones snap and splinter but he didn't stop until Lancer, who had been standing like a statue herself suddenly threw herself to Rodi's side.

She grabbed his arm at the wrist and held it to her chest between them. She rested her forehead on Rodi's temple and they just sat there, unmoving, for a very long time.

X

X

X

Marissa handed Lancer bandages without a word, which was fine because Lancer wasn't speaking either. No one spoke. They were too busy digesting what this scene implied for their universe and what it might imply for Rodi's. They were also afraid to disturb him. His eyes were green and glowed like embers. The pupils were fixed and constricted to near pin-pricks in spite of the low light. He didn't appear to be flashing. Rather he seemed quite in the present, and quite ready to kill anything at all.

Lancer physically popped bones that were protruding out of his skin back into place. He neither flinched nor acknowledged his mate.

So the rest of the group flinched for him every time there was a particularly loud crack.

Finally the last bone and the last bandage were in place.

Marissa asked Lancer a question with her eyes.

"He'll be all right," Lancer answered. "The bones will be knitted by tomorrow."

Marissa paused, threw Rodi's immobile face a nervous glance, and said very quietly, "I'm not really worried about his hand."

Lancer looked at her friend sadly. She saw the fear there, understood it, and knew when Rodi felt better he would be sorry he'd caused it. She didn't remark on that, but answered the spoken concern instead.

"Sometimes...sometimes the physical pain helps the emotional pain," Lancer told her.

Marissa nodded in understanding but she still jumped a mile when Rodimus started spilling what was on his mind.

"It can't have happened like that in our dimension. The history doesn't jive."

"Love," Lancer said. "Let me in."

"The Matrix completely predates the Autobots...we got it from the Quints. The memories I saw in the Matrix...we got it from the Quints during the revolt."

"Rodimus...let me in," Lancer repeated.

"The Quints built Cybertron, but that one Jabez built Vector Sigma and gave it to them. The Jabez who wanted to be a robot...the one who didn't want to die."

"Rodi? Love?"

"Whatever brought this civilization down...it had already happened. Our species is younger than this downfall."

"HEY! Rodimus! Let Me IN!"

"The Matrix bearers...me, Optimus, Sentinal, Nova, Prima...where did the core personality come from?

"That's not right," Hot Rod said to his twin. "You forgot one."

Rodimus turned those haunted, obsessed eyes on his twin. "Who?"

"Primus...he was the first. Our history..." Hot Rod threw a nervous glance to the walls, "Our history claims he was the first Matrix bearer and the founder of our culture."

Rodimus stared unblinking at his twin. "I am...unfamiliar with that name."

"It's true, Rodi," Marissa said. "They all swear by him. I always...I always got the impression he was as much a mythological character as a real being. ... Sorry guys, but some of the stuff attributed to him are sort of out there."

Rodimus laughed bitterly, "Some of the stuff attributed to OPTIMUS Prime is sort of out there. When we're stressed we sit around looking up outrageous things attributed to him and laugh about them. Even humans on the net make stuff up, or exaggerate real events right off the charts. Most of them think we are literally in league with the devil... but there are plenty of wacko religious sects that name him the second coming."

"I bet you don't have that problem, eh Rodi?" Springer jabbed. He really just couldn't help himself.

"If he kills you, you deserve it," Arcee told him.

Rodimus suddenly blinked, smiled slightly, and seemed more himself. "I'm more careful about how I talk. I do have a most awesome concert hall name after me in Seattle though. I think Op is jealous."

"Cool," Hot Rod said. That sounded like more of an achievement to him than anything else he could think of.

"Not really," Lancer said. "Where do you think they got their color scheme from? You should see the carpet."

"Yeah, but does it SOUND good?" asked Hot Rod over the snickering of his so-called friends. There was history and then there was music. Hot Rod had his priorities.

Lancer snickered. "I don't really know. We were only there for one show and we didn't have tickets. It sounded pretty good from the roof though."

"What were you doing on the roof?" Arcee asked, not unreasonably.

Lancer and Rod looked at each other and smirked.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Springer said.

When they were done laughing, they all felt better, and were able to leave the frieze behind and head back for the surface.

X

X

X

The shuttle landed at Miami Intergalactic, not Metroplex. A light blue delivery truck with a blonde at the wheel drove out of the space port, a white one pulled into Spike's driveway about an hour later.

"DIBS ON THE SHOWER!" Hot Rod yelled, grabbing Foul Play by the hand and tearing inside.

They heard Carly's faint scream of surprise.

"Do you suppose they stopped to say 'Hi, we're back?" Marissa wondered.

The delivery truck appeared to sigh, and Rodimus transformed. "I'd call that unlikely, but I'm sure Carly knows the sound of those feet on her stairs."

"Why are we here instead of Metroplex?" Magnus asked.

"I thought we could all use a shower. I certainly am somehow still suspicious of leech chunks," Rodimus said.

"Eww..." Arcee cringed.

"Ah," Magnus said, "but those pretty much disappeared when you morphed. All those hours in the shuttle and you're stalling!"

"Am not," Rodimus sulked.

"Are to!" Springer gloated. "Are to! Coward! You're worried about Optimus!"

Rodimus made a grab for the triple changer. "I am not worried about Optimus!" he said, using an assassin's hold to pin Springer for a brief but enthusiastic nuggie on the skull. "I am worried about how to handle another player in this little game I haven't considered before."

Magnus frowned, confused. "Who?"

"The Matrix," Rodimus said.

"Uh..." Magnus said intelligently. "Oh..."

The front door slammed open. "You're back!" Carly cried, raising her arms in welcome.

"You all look like shit," Spike told them. He was still pissed about being left behind.

X

X

X

Cleaned up, refreshed, fed (Pizza!), and back out the door ten hours later, Spike shoved them all back into his van and off they went to report to Optimus Prime and Elita.

Rodimus, still emotionally at sea over the news they brought let Magnus do most of the talking. Sitting stock still in human form, he didn't really listen, but considered how these dimensions were similar and different, and how the same Matrix might have taken different routes to the same destination. He wondered if this Prime's Matrix was really the twin of his own.

He felt it then, while he thought about it...a brief touch...like a feather's kiss along his consciousness. Rodimus instinctively slammed up a wall around his mind and Lancer's which she instinctively supported, but with it there was almost an apology.

Don't touch me. I'm not for you. No harm meant...but not for you.

The touch withdrew, and Rodimus noted distractedly that Optimus jumped as if singed. Rodimus was careful to keep his expression neutral and his hands (healed now) at his sides. Optimus subsided, shook his head, and turned his attention back to Magnus.

Magnus voice rose, and Rodi paused in his reflection to pay attention... had they gotten to the crystals yet? No. Just the leech.

What did the Jabez really WANT anyway? He had always accepted greed as their motives, like they were Quints only better at it. Yet now that he thought about it, they could have had even more money and power if they worked out in the open. The genetic engineering they could achieve alone would have made them near gods on any world. Why had he never noticed that before? Because he was too busy hating them to really think about them.

Hate did that. Made you stupid.

Ah...time to check back in.

Magnus was describing the Jabez city and how Rodimus had been able to just "feel" his way to the crystals. The City Commander threw Rodi occasional glances to see if he wanted to chime in, but Rodimus just looked back and said nothing.

The real punch-line came with the Primus frieze. Optimus, Elita, and Kup looked as dumbfounded as they had the day he met them, but they rapidly took off on an excited debate about the Matrix and their history. Rodimus listened, feeling strangely distant from it all, but mostly evaluating them for any sort of pseudo-religious outrage or depression.

None. Good. He remembered Marissa's (his dimension's Marissa) despair after learning the Jabez were responsible for starting the human race on Earth.

Why would they do that anyway? Sure mutants were profitable now, but surely there must have been faster ways to make a living than starting a species from scratch and waiting for it to turn into something you could exploit. Transformers being a possible exception to that.

How did humans in this dimension get their start anyway?

Uh-oh. They were all looking at him this time.

Optimus asked what you will do with this information when we get back, my wool-gathering love, Lancer sent.

Thanks, he sent back to her, with a wave of affection.

You owe me, she returned, along with suggestions for payment. It helped bring his back to the present.

He cleared his throat and pretended to be considering his answer, "Well, first we use it to GET back. Then I'd like to see if we can find that planet in our dimension too. If we can, or if we can somehow reproduce blank crystals artificially, then I'd love to see some twisted, impossible ideas I've had come to life...like sentient com-eyes. Right now Vector Sigma monitors the bad-lands on Cybertron for teleports, slaver activity, stuff like that. It's all part of the pay-back it owes us for all the lives lost to this asinine war! However, it would be nice to not have to trust that wretched thing with our security. After that, I think I can probably come up with some creative uses for them that might help us make those damnable Jabez as extinct in our dimension as they seem to be here!" Ah...hatred. Really must do something about that.

The touch again...a bit more like an actual pressure this time, testing the shields. Denied access...and surprised about it too.

Stop it. This time their refusal wasn't a message, but a warning.

Again, Optimus jumped. This time, he looked around as if something physical had made contact.

Rodimus frowned inwardly. Obviously Hot Rod's father wasn't behind the probes.

"I wonder what made them die off here," Elita mused. "I wonder how they fell so...so low there."

"I've decided I can't afford to worry about that, except so far as that it may let me find them, or find a way to end them," Rodimus said. He almost purred at the thought of it. Only very seldom did he let himself wonder what it would be like to finish them or how he might go about it. In the mean time it was one day, one slaver ring, one life at a time.

Elita was a bit taken aback by her son's twin. She knew he'd suffered things she couldn't imagine. She knew what he did. But his first recounting had been so neutral and emotionless. This conversation made it plain how angry and blood-thirsty he was. Sure he regretted the lives he had to take - if they were human. But the Jabez? If he got his hands on one of them he would drink the blood and smile.

Rodimus saw Elita looking at him and saw the shock on her face. He knew he should have cared more, but in this strange, disconnected mood he didn't care much. He smiled at her, dead Jabez glowing in his imagination.

Again! The touch harder this time...not asking...demanding!

Even if Rodimus was the sort to put up with that, Lancer surely wasn't. The polite shield became a weapon. This time they pushed back.

YOU STAY OUT!

Optimus yelped. All he knew was that the Matrix was surging.

Lancer growled.

So did Rodimus, "Optimus, you'd better put a leash on that thing or there's gonna be trouble! My mate has just a small problem with mental invasion and if we get poked at again I don't think I'll be able to stop her!"

"Wh...what?" Optimus asked, genuinely clueless.

"Your Matrix. It wants a look in my head. Access Denied Primus or whoever you are! Just because your twin and I hung out for a while doesn't mean you get to have a go!"

"The Matrix..?" Optimus asked...then paused. He suddenly felt... angry, frustrated, determined.

The crystal pulsed, throbbed, and PUSHED. Alternate dimension version or not, this was one of ITS bearers and being rebuffed was not merely unacceptable, it was unimaginable.

Rodi/Lancer went ballistic. Mental violation was something they had both had their fill of long ago.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" they roared with two throats and one voice. Lancer's possession pain surfaced in her/his mind and she threw it...a small part of it...at the invader.

The contact broke away as if seared. Optimus clutched his chest and gasped. He didn't really feel the counter-attack, but he felt the Matrix recoil. Lancer snarled, fully fanged and up on her taloned toes. Somehow she had jumped to the back of her Autobot-sized chair. Optimus knew the glowing mutant's next move would be to launch physically at his chest. Rodimus morphed Autobot and stood in front of Optimus with optics fixed, green, and eerie, not on Prime, but at Prime's chest plate.

Optimus didn't know what was more threatening - Lancer's lashing tail or Rodi's immobility, but Optimus was convinced if the Matrix moved on Rodimus' mind again they would both go for it and if they had to go through Optimus to get to it, that wouldn't slow them down.

It didn't matter. He would have stopped the Matrix anyway. Its actions seemed, well, rude, to its bearer.

For one of the few times in his life, Optimus Prime turned his awareness away from the physical world and into the crystal he bore. He found the usual source of much of his own calm roiling in turmoil. When it spoke to him it was in a multi-layered, collective voice. More than one soul within the crystal was angry.

you must stop he told it.

wrong! wrong a Prime would turn us away!

He is not wrong...he is not from our universe and it is his right to defend his own thoughts

he plans genocide he has committed genocide wrong Wrong WRONG

Optimus sensed that the Matrix was not merely referring to the morality of Rodi's action, but to his mind and spirit. He has been through much, their situation demands extremes

he plans to destroy that which created us

they tortured him...they make slaves of the innocent! Optimus argued. That seemed to give them pause. He wondered, as he sometimes did, just how much of what he knew and experienced made it through into the Matrix. Sometimes it seemed so with him, so aware. Other times it seemed to sleep, and he almost forgot he carried it. Had they missed or misinterpreted Rodi's explanation of his universe? As Optimus thought about that long, disturbing day, he felt the memory echoing back at him, as if they were discussing it.

When the Matrix spoke again, there were still multiple voices, but not as many.

he is a killer...he is insane.

I would be too, in his place, Optimus said with assurance.

your son wishes to be like him Optimus Prime. we sense it.

This gave Optimus pause. Low blow. Prime's answer, laced with sadness, didn't come without regret. my son is young, but he isn't gullible and he isn't stupid. He respects and trusts his twin. I respect and trust Hot Rod's judgement... and Magnus' too.

he will never be Prime if he continues this course

That one was easy. Good. Maybe I should encourage him! Optimus Prime knew he would someday need a successor, but he certainly wasn't hoping it would be Hot Rod.

There seemed to be an argument within his chest. That was foolish. You knew he would have no ambitions for his child to succeed him. He feels it a burden as we all did This voice had a feminine tinge. Prima?

we must probe the twin. we must heal the hate. The Shapers are in danger

they are not what we remember in his realm

genocide is wrong! no Prime, no dimension, can justify that

Not even if those being eradicated are guilty of it themselves? That voice Optimus knew for certain. Sentinel.

THEY wouldn't!

how can we be sure?

if we probe him, we will know.

Optimus had had enough, If you probe him, he will attack. She will attack, and they will be justified. I will not defend us. I will not defend you.

He sensed shock...and a probe of his resolve. He didn't resist the intrusion, but let them see for themselves he meant what he said. He met Rodi's cold, set optics. Wild, unwavering, and focused like a hunting cat after prey.

There was what seemed like a very long silence from the Matrix.

Then, we would speak to him. will you...will you consent to be the voice? There was only one voice now.

No more probes? Optimus questioned.

none the voice answered. It sounded somewhat sullen, as if it was angry with his challenge, but he knew the Matrix would not lie to him.

I will speak for you, he agreed. What do I do?

Nothing save don't resist.

Fine, Optimus said.

To him, this conversation seemed to last a long time. To the others, it took only a heartbeat.

"There will be no more probes," Optimus told Rodimus.

Rodi's optics didn't waver, they just narrowed and flared.

"Really, I won't allow it," Optimus said. He wondered if taking that authority amounted to blasphemy.

"Good," Rodi said. He relaxed as much as he was able, but the numb, disconnected feeling persisted. Lancer didn't come down off her armrest or her toes, but the tail slowed down.

"It...it wants to speak to you Rodimus," Optimus told him.

Rodimus arched an eyebrow. "I'm not the best company right now," he confessed.

Lancer growled. Absent-mindedly, he put a hand on her back.

"Rodi...are you alright?" Marissa asked sharply.

He turned his optics down to his friend an automatically started to say something to dispel her worries. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. He'd hardly said two words after leaving the Primus chamber, including on the long, boring flight back. Magnus crossed his arms in front of his chest and matched her glare, but there was an ironic twinkle in the City Commander's eye too. The look said it, "Go ahead. Tell the truth. I dare you."

"No." Rodimus stated bluntly. "I'm not all right. I've never thought of the Jabez as anything but just plain evil. I hate them. I hate them so intensely I am realizing I can't even think about them! Usually, I am pretty good at analyzing my enemies and what they're really after, but even trying to think about them...I've never really done that. I'm trying to get past WHAT they did...to try to work on why they did it. I feel...I feel numb."

"You are disassociating," Marissa said.

"I suppose. When they had...when they had Goldbug and me in pieces I tried to force my emotions down...to watch...to help us escape if we could, but I think it backfired. I remember everything in so much detail that when I try to think about it, it's like I'm there again. I'm trying to do the Prime thing, but I can't seem to get past the hate," Rodimus said. His voice grated.

"No one blames you Rodi," Magnus said.

"I blame me," came the rasping answer, "The answers I need might be there and I need to find the strength to look."

"You a risking a psychotic break-down!" Marissa cried.

"I know. Want the suicide chip back?"

"NO!" the human group yelled at him.

"Suicide chip?" Kup asked, but no one answered him until later.

"Will you speak to the Matrix Rodi? If I mediate?" Optimus pressed. "They are pressing for an answer."

"And people are always on me to be more patient," Hot Rod chirped sarcastically.

"You should be more respectful of your ancestors Hot Rod!" Kup chided him.

"I know, but I figured, why start now?" the young bot retorted.

Rodimus' couldn't help himself. One corner of his mouth turned up into a bitter smile. Somehow, Hot Rod's impertinence helped him regain the present. "I will speak with the Matrix, Optimus, but Marissa has made me promise to be more honest, so don't expect them to like the answers. Diplomacy was never my strong point anyway, and I gave up my awe for the Old Prime Retirement Home a while back too. I respect them for the Autobots and the leaders that they were, but I can't be in awe of them any more than I can be in awe of myself. They all had their strengths, their weaknesses, and their major fuck-ups too. The only miracle I see in that is that the Autobots ever survived our collective incompetence."

"The Old Prime Retirement Home?" Magnus repeated. The others, even Hot Rod, were looking appalled at Rodi's irreverent tone, but Magnus...Magnus snickered. Just once, but he snickered.

Optimus stiffened in his seat. "You insult Us, young one!" The voice coming out of Optimus was nothing like his own.

"You tried to invade my head. You started it," Rodimus sneered. Lancer hissed.

"You mean to exterminate the ones that shaped us!"

"Oh...oh yes I do," Rodimus rumbled like a big cat grooming the fur off a kill.

"Maybe now isn't such a good time," Marissa said, but neither Rodimus nor Optimus heeded her.

"It is wrong!" "Optimus" thundered.

"Who are you?" Rodimus asked.

"We Are..." Optimus started.

"NO!" Rodimus cut the oddly layered voice coming out of Optimus off. "NOT the WE. Who exactly is asking these questions? Or have you been floating in a rock so long you don't know yourself anymore?"

Optimus Prime stared at Rodimus. The look in the elder's optics was perplexed. Then, finally. "I am Primus."

"Thought so," Rodimus said. "Nice to meet you. I mean that by the way. Now, if you want to talk to me, then talk. If you expect me to fall down in some sort of religious awe then we aren't going to get far. I am not the bot for that. Everything I've ever held in awe that way has turned out to be an illusion at best or a monster at worst."

"We are...I am ... sorry for your suffering child, but I can not condone you turning on the Matrix Shapers. Their gift saved our kind."

"I don't know what you're talking about Primus," Rodimus whispered with a clenched jaw.

Continued in Part G


	7. Chapter 7

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part G

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part G

Continued from Part F

"When the Quintissons were overthrown, we were in chaos. All of us. All the Transformers. There were no Autobots at that time, no Decepticons. Just slaves. The first revolt was won mostly by surprise. The Quintissons had few defenses against us. They never knew we could rebel. We knew, the few of us calm enough to think, that they would return in force. Two of us somehow managed to calm the frenzy. I was able to organize the household slaves...the ancestors of the Autobots. And a warrior, a female named Shadowfall organized the warrior line. We made...a potent team."

Foul Play gasped and flinched. In her people's history Shadowfall was considered the first traitor, and all other traitors were punished for her sins as well as their own.

The Primus voice took no notice of Foul Play's shock. "We were able, in those first desperate days, to come together to survive. We repelled the second onslaught."

Rodimus nodded. "The histories are similar in my universe. It might have even been your twin that helped unify them, but your name has been lost. I have met other leaders in the Matrix, and I have sensed there was another spark I didn't talk to, but I don't know if it's you."

"Shadowfall's efforts and mine were not enough to hold our people together. The domestic line was fragmented, frightened, accustomed to one task or another, but not warfare. Many felt the fighting was done and weapons were an unneeded cost in resources. The warriors often lost patience with their timid brothers and sisters. For their part, the warriors were unruly. They bored easily, had a hard time forming friendships and were offended when asked to preform needed tasks of drudgery. Fighting was all they knew, and I fear, patience grew thin in the domestic line as well. The two sides squabbled, like undisciplined siblings, over priorities, over resources. One side felt we needed more soldiers, more defense. The other wanted Cybertron to heal, and be a comfortable home. The truth was surely somewhere in between."

"Always is," Rodimus said.

"We were disintegrating, and unlike many of my domestic brethren, I knew the Quintissons were simply regrouping, so I went looking for allies. I promised Shadowfall I would come back as fast as I could. We argued bitterly over it. She felt she would be safer on such a voyage. I felt I would be more likely to win allies to our cause if I met them. She finally surrendered. She didn't want me to go because she was afraid for me."

Rodimus sat up, reading more between the lines than maybe Primus wanted. "You were lovers," he said. It was not a question.

There was a very long pause. "Yes. She was my mate. We were among the first of our species to choose mates for themselves...and then I left her. It was good that I was the one that went, for when the Quintisson patrol found me they defeated me easily. She would have defeated them, and the Matrix would not exist for us. I was shot down on the world you just visited. I met there the fleshlings you speak of with such venom, Rodimus Prime."

There was another pause.

"I'm listening," Rodimus said.

"They found me. They healed me. I spent many weeks in their care. They were not advanced enough to be the allies I sought, but the potential of their technology stunned me. Their love of knowledge and the truth heartened me. To them, I was as a god, because they knew nothing of other worlds. Because of me, they had a goal to reach the stars. When I was well, and able to repair my ship with their help, they gave a gift. The largest and most flawless crystal they had ever found, as a receptacle for whatever knowledge I would surely gain as I traveled the heavens. For them, the greatest evil, was for any truth, great or small, to be lost. I put it within my own body for safe keeping and they danced and sang with joy that I should take knowledge so much to heart."

Rodimus frowned with disgust. The Jabez he knew liked to know things alright...but if they wanted to learn about you they just took you apart to have a look for themselves. He told Primus so, but didn't get a response.

Primus just continued. As he went, the voice from Optimus mouth became less booming and more like...like just another voice. More like a real person than a supernatural being.

"My shuttle barely made it back home. I had failed in my mission, but I felt that what our people needed most was guidance. Our gladiators needed to learn compassion and gentleness. Our domestic slaves needed to learn to think for themselves. We were children, all of us, with no one to teach us. I took my Jabez friends' philosophy to heart. We needed wisdom, and we couldn't afford to lose an atom of it. I left the Matrix in my chest and showed it only to my beloved Shadowfall. I made her promise to protect it if something happened to me. I poured my thoughts and what little I had learned into the crystal."

"It imprinted on you," Rodimus said matter-of-factly. "You thought of it as a receptacle for wisdom and that is precisely what it became."

"Yes, but it did not function the way I imagined. I did not realize, until too late, that it was absorbing not just my knowledge, but my very consciousness. We were so busy, so tired. Our people were more and more at each other's throats. There was evidence the Quintissons were preparing for another assault, but many domestics dismissed this as a warrior ploy for more resources. We were not helped by the fact that some of the charges of corruption were in fact true. I went to recharge after a very long and bitter day, and poured over my meager memories for some kind of hope. Some idea that would save us.

I never woke up in my own body again. The Matrix had absorbed my mind."

Even Optimus, telling this story as it were, jumped in surprise at that revelation.

"My beloved, my Shadow, found me and grieved. She kept her promise though, not knowing what had killed me, and she took my most prized possession from my corpse and put it into her chest. She had been...she had been ready to tell me she was successful in creating a new spark with me, but she was too late. Or so she thought. I was there. I knew."

Those listening were entranced by now. Even Lancer was relaxing and losing her demonic features.

"My love was not one to wallow in sorrow. That very day, she changed her name to Prima in my honor and announced both my death and the existence of our offspring to our people in one breath. He was the first born. The first after the Quintissons. When his shell was built she named him Nova and held him up as a symbol of the unity our kind needed. She took my name and used it like a weapon, a lash, to bring the warriors back to their honor and stiffen the resolve of the domestics. She raised Nova as a warrior but branded him with my slave brand. It was enough to see us through the next, worst Quintisson assault and in our victory came our downfall. The Quintissons retreated, but memories are short. The in-fighting resurfaced, like a virus we couldn't expunge.

Prima was finally murdered. The warriors called her a traitor for siding with the domestics on some small issue and ambushed her at home. She deceived them, they claimed, and they took the name Decepticons. They didn't know about the Matrix, but Nova did. He took the stone, and was the first to discover that both his parents were now within it, and that he could talk to us in times of need. I had gathered her mind to me as she died and we were reunited. We were able to converse with him, but kept his mind from being absorbed. There is a certain danger in such conversations, as the bearers know, but we help when we can."

Optimus/Primus paused, and sighed sadly.

"Nova was angry at the warriors. He renounced them and decried them as traitors. Some denounced Prima's murder, stayed and were welcomed, but those that left were shunned forever, even if they tried to return after. Nova named his first offspring Sentinel, impressed upon him vigilance against treachery, and never told him of his duel heritage. Nova had other scions too, Optimus Prime, and A3 follows that lineage through his mother. Does it distress you to know your warrior heritage at last my sons?"

"Till all are one," Optimus said very softly.

Magnus snorted. "It's not like it hasn't been suggested to me before."

Hot Rod just looked at Foul Play and smiled. "Do you suppose now would be a good time to tell my parents about us?" he asked. "It's apparently family tradition."

Foul Play shrieked and hid her face in her hands. Marissa got up, walked across the room, and hit Hot Rod on the back of the head. Then she walked back and sat down.

"Ow," Hot Rod said.

Optimus, under Primus' influence, didn't really register this exchange, and anything Elita might have said or done was fore-stalled by Primus turning back to Rodi.

"Don't you see, young one? The Jabez you hate so gave our people the only chance we had...do they not deserve the same?"

Rodimus flashed briefly, reliving the first Conversions he'd ever seen. They were neither the youngest, nor the bloodiest he had witnessed in his time hunting slavers. They weren't butchered or raped while he watched, but they were the first. Somehow, except for Danny's Conversion, they were still the most traumatic.

"No," he said, "but thanks for the story. I'll tell it to my kids sometime." He extended an arm slightly, and Lancer sprang up his arm in two, well practiced jumps. She wrapped her tail around his spoiler and he walked out.

"What's this about you and Foul Play?" Elita asked Hot Rod as they left.

Don't punch the walls. We're in the sentient section, Lancer sent to her mate.

Complete waste of everyone's time, Rodi sent back darkly.

Almost too late, he realized he was in robot form in Hot Rod's home town and cloaked just as Blurr rounded a corner. Fortunately Blurr was also not the most observant of robots. All Blurr saw was a human woman standing by herself and he just zoomed past, assuming she was a visitor. He might have noticed the visitor was standing on thin air higher than his shoulder, but he didn't.

I need some air, Rodi sent as Lancer hastily jumped to the floor. He morphed down to join her and they made for the exit as if chased. They weren't, although Marissa did poke her head out of Prime's office to look for them.

Magnus and the others waited long after any further discussions with Optimus were done. First they were annoyed, then worried. Finally it got so late they went back to Spike's house for the night.

X

X

X

Magnus came down the stairs around four am. After a restless night tossing around he finally gave up and acknowledged his need to pace. He left the lights off so as not to disturb anyone and stepped down into the livingroom.

"Are they still willing to help us?" a quiet, flat voice asked from the window.

Magnus stifled a yelp, and marched up to the shadow speaking to him.

"You had us all worried sick! Where were you two? Why didn't you contact us?"

"You pace. I race," Rodimus said, as if that explained everything.

"You are infuriating! You were MIA for over twelve hours Rodi! We couldn't find you!" Magnus' voice was strained between the need to whisper and the need to give this person the reaming he deserved.

"You didn't want to find me. Magnus...I am not...I am not right. I feel feverish. I can't keep from thinking about them and I can't calm down. Any more talk of sparing the Jabez and I was gonna really hurt someone. Anyone. I think Marissa may be right about a psychotic break."

"We aren't going to stay here," Lancer said, the voice floating invisibly from the couch behind him. It was a good thing Magnus knew they came as a set or he would have jumped through the ceiling. "He needs to calm down. I can't even get my fangs to retract all the way and he's shielding me."

Magnus looked at her. He could see the points brushing her lips as she talked.

"To answer your question, yes, of course they are still going to help you! Give Optimus some credit! He's an idealistic, pompous short circuit and he drives me to overheat sometimes, but he isn't blind Rodi! And even if he was do you seriously think I would just let him turn you away? Do you think his son would? Hot Rod would never, ever forgive him! That boy really IS a lot like you and he is furious with the Jabez. Optimus won't ever admit it, but if Hot Rod turns his back on Prime... Not to mention what Arcee and Marissa would do. It didn't matter though, because Optimus didn't need any of our help. He told you already he would aid you and that's the end of it. Primus clearly isn't happy, but Optimus is basically just ignoring that. As far as he's concerned, they are two Autobot leaders with a difference of opinion, but Primus isn't the one in charge right now. It's settled."

Rodimus nodded. "What now?"

"Now Wheel-Jack, Perceptor, and Ratchet work their magic and get your belt working. They've already got a blueprint for a capsule to change us back. It needs to be built and tested but they're on it. Now that they have the crystals to look at, I'm sure you'll be home soon."

"Thanks Magnus," Rodimus said. He was grateful...more grateful than he could put into words. "We've got to go. Marissa will be looking for you soon," he said.

"Wait! You aren't staying?"

"Magnus...I need to focus on the Jabez and what they did to me. I need to find the pattern in their slave work, in the Converts, in the Sponsors. It's there, and I need to look for it, but I'm not going to be around anyone I care about when I do it, OK? There's a national park south of here. Lancer and I are staying there. Keep that to yourself or Hot Rod will get ideas. We'll contact you morning and nightfall. Don't worry...it should only be a few days."

"I can't stop you can I?" Magnus asked.

"You shouldn't want to," Lancer whispered. She took her mate's hand and led him out, waving to Magnus slightly as she did. He stood, somewhat stunned, in the center of the living room. Then he went to put the coffee on.

X

X

X

A few days stretched into a week and a half. Rodi and Lancer did call twice a day, but they had neglected to tell Magnus they were only going to let the phone ring twice at precisely seven o'clock am and pm. If anyone picked up the phone quicker than that, there was simply a click on the other end.

When the residents in the house finally heard an engine idling its way up the driveway, they were having dinner. They all turned to stare and to see what kind of truck was pulling in. It was grey.

When the cloaking field fell, Rodimus' eye-bending colors were also greyish, although most of it was dust and dead bugs on his grill. Most, but not all. The main engine fell silent, but he just sat there in the driveway.

Magnus and Marissa exchanged glances.

Hot Rod was up, out the door, and down the front steps before anyone even registered he moved.

"You're back! We were worried! Are you OK? Carly's REALLY pissed at you for not really calling! I mean like really pissed. Hi Lancer...do ya need help getting down?"

Lancer smiled, shook her head, and slid out of the cab.

Rodimus transformed slowly behind her, then morphed down. There was a small cascade of dead bugs as he did but he took no notice of them. He studied his twin seriously, as if he were a stranger.

Hot Rod, full of nervous energy though he was, came to a full stop and stared back. "Are you...alright Rodimus?" he asked very quietly.

"I'm tired," Rodi said finally.

He looked towards the house. There was a menacing looking crowd there. Magnus glowered, Marissa stared at them piercingly, Arcee and Springer both looked annoyed, and Spike had his lips pursed as if he tasted something sour. Carly stood at the front of the pack, hands on her hips, and blue eyes blazing.

"What makes you think you can just waltz back in here after close to two weeks without even a PHONE CALL! Those rings were just, just insulting!" Carly folded her arms over her chest and frowned at him, as if challenging him to argue with that.

"See?" Hot Rod whispered out of the side of his mouth. "Told you she was mad."

Rodimus didn't answer either Carly or his twin. He just looked at her, swaying slightly where he stood.

She continued to stare, having vowed he wouldn't wear down her wrath with any argument or joke or prank he might try. Unfortunately for her resolve, he did none of those things. He just stared at her with eyes that seemed to have sunk half-way into his skull. She noted with a start that he looked thinner.

"Geez...he looks more like shit than the last time," Spike muttered to himself.

"That's it! Get inside this minute," Carly said, turning her ire into action.

Lancer smiled wanly as Rodimus ducked his head and followed orders. Marissa tried to catch the mutant's eye as Lancer went past, but Lancer wouldn't look at her.

Carly all but pushed Rodi down into "his" chair which already had a plate, silverware, and glass. The head of the household had set their plates for every meal without tolerating comment. Lancer sat down next to her mate and patted his thigh. Carly took their empty plates and scraped them up what she could from the near empty bowls of mashed potatoes and green beans scattered all over the table.

"These hulks will eat anything including the plates if you don't watch them every second!" Carly complained, scraping violently at one of the bowls. "I told them to leave you some just in case you came home...." She surveyed her handiwork and was actually impressed with how much she had managed to find for them in the bottoms of her various serving dishes.

She put one in front of Lancer, who smiled and said "thanks." The other, dropped in front of Rodimus had more food on it than they had ever seen him eat. He didn't really look at it, but he picked up his fork and ate, without looking, speaking, or stopping until it was gone.

Lancer watched him without a word, but her right hand never moved from his leg. She ate with her left.

The others hung in the doorway.

"Marissa?" Hot Rod whispered in her ear, "What's wrong with him?"

"He'll be OK, Kiddo. I'm sure they wouldn't be back if he wasn't. I think they must be tired," she told him. The EDC Captain went inside the kitchen, pushing past Springer and Magnus with difficulty, and sat down in her spot, which happened to be across from Lancer.

"We interrupted you dinner," Lancer noted.

"We were pretty much done. We were just getting ready to start cleaning up," Marissa said. The normally aggressive mutant still wouldn't meet her eye. Lancer watched her mate clear his plate. He didn't put down his fork. It stayed suspended in his hand while he stared into space.

"Wow," said Springer. "The Jabez upgraded his personality too." He said it quietly, only to Arcee, and his tone was the kind of sarcastic he used when he was worried, but Rodimus heard him.

No one heard the assassin move; no one saw him move.

Even Magnus who was next to Springer in the doorway didn't have time to react.  
All Springer knew was suddenly he was hit and airborne, with a green-eyed demon tackling him and driving him to Carly's livingroom floor. The first hand jab went to Springer's throat, the second was a balled fist to his face. It was the last thing Springer knew of the world for a while. He was just lucky Lancer was as fast as her mate, because the next blow was going through the floor by way of his face. She didn't grab Rodimus, she shocked him, and he dropped like a boned fish on top of Springer's inert form.

"We came back too soon," Lancer said. It was just a statement.

She knelt and pulled Rodi off Springer's body, so that Arcee could frantically and tearfully threaten to kill him when he came around.

"Get some ice," Lancer told Carly. The mutant's face was expressionless. "Springer's throat is going to swell up and if it gets bad he'll smother."

It was actually Spike who brought an ice-pack while Carly helped Arcee prop a pillow behind Springer's head. His throat was red and his nose was bleeding and swelling too. Lancer looked him over, reached down, and set Springer's nose with a practiced tug.

The pain brought Springer swiftly around, but he choked for a minute and coughed uncontrollably. Arcee rubbed his back and swore at him.

"This is your fault you stupid shit-head! Why won't you stop it? Why must you ALWAYS say something to him?!"

Springer's eyes widened at his mate. Here he was, hardly able to breath, and she was blaming him!

He tried to say "My fault?" but all that came out was a sort of gurgle, followed by another violent coughing fit.

It didn't matter, Arcee knew exactly what he meant to say.

"Yes your fault! Just like it was with Hot Rod no matter what Magnus says! It's perfect you can't talk! Maybe I should have Lancer do something to make it permanent!" Arcee cried...really cried. There were tears running down her face and she was shaking with adrenaline and shock.

"Arcee," Lancer whispered, "It's our fault. It was hard. Much harder than we imagined. We thought he was better enough...but we were wrong. He took me by surprise. I thought I would feel it if he was snapping, but there wasn't any change or warning. I didn't even feel anger. It's like his emotions are somewhere else. We'll just go try again."

Arcee sobbed. "No! It's not right. We're supposed to be his friends. You shouldn't have to go hide in a swamp...you shouldn't have to leave all your comfort and help behind! Rodi will never forgive himself for this! I know he won't! Just one more burden Springer! More guilt! All because you can't be trusted to keep your big fat mouth under control!"

Springer looked at her and wheezed. He clutched the ice pack to his throat, distressed.

"We stay here playing video games, and sleeping in nice beds, and playing in the pool! They have go off into the woods so he can relive all that awful horror! To protect us! To protect US! We should be protecting them!" Arcee shouted. She shoved her mate's thick arm as he sat on the floor staring at her in disbelief. "We Should Be Protecting Them! Or are we not really Autobots anymore?"

Springer's next unintelligible sound seemed apologetic, but Arcee wasn't done with him yet.

"Will you look at him?" she said, pointing to Rodi. "Will you REALLY look at him? He's a shell! Everything in him is used up and you! You just have to cut him down, because he scares you! He scares you! You always attack what scares you and you love Hot Rod and you don't want this for him and you love Rodi too and it scares you that he scares you! Just quit it! I won't stand for it Springer! You aren't a bully and you aren't a coward but you sure are doing a good imitation!"

This time Springer's shoulders slumped and his forehead crinkled. He looked ready to cry himself and his eyes pleaded with his mate for forgiveness... or maybe help.

"I love you! I love you, you stupid, lug-nut brained Wrecker! And I won't let you do this to yourself! I won't let you push him over the edge! You'll never forgive yourself if you do! I won't let you! If I have to lock you in the room or make you write down everything you think to say before you say it! I won't let you!"

Lancer watched as Springer crushed Arcee to his chest. The triple changer looked completely distraught and Arcee was still actively sobbing. The mutant didn't smile or frown, but watched numbly while Arcee took Springer to the kitchen to clean up his face. When they had put a bit of distance between themselves and her mate, Lancer bent back down to the floor and touched Rodi's temple.

His eyes opened a clouded aqua. He looked at Lancer, who took his arm and helped him to his feet.

"You aren't going," Magnus said.

Neither responded, but Rodi held up his fist. Bruised knuckles. Springer's blood.  
"You could have killed him just as easily. You didn't. We'll be careful," Marissa assured them, "You shouldn't go through this alone."

"Besides, isn't getting help when you need it something you've been trying to get me to do?" Magnus asked.

Rodi didn't even blink. He turned to leave only to find the doorway blocked.

"Go to your room," Carly said.

This time Rodi actually did blink once.

"You heard me! Go to your room! You are grounded. You are not leaving this house!" Carly fumed.

For the first time, a real expression crossed Rodimus' pale features. Consternation.

He made as if to push past her and in a fit of pure, motherly courage Carly pushed him towards the stairs.

"You will NOT ignore me! You will be here for your damnable orange juice even if I have to bring it to you on a tray! Go to your room! No one will bother you unless you ask us for help! Like sleeping in the Everglades is going to help you concentrate! Just stay up there until you work it out you stupid Autobot! The people in this household will simply have to learn how to knock!"

To everyone's astonishment, including Lancer's, Carly pushed him to the stairs and he went up. She hounded him all the way to his room. He slid in like a shade and shut the door behind him.

Lancer's eyebrows attempted to leap over her head.

Carly came back down the stairs looking a bit astonished herself, but also a tiny bit smug.

"He will do anything I say, won't he?" she asked Lancer, who was still staring up the stairs with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"Probably," the mutant responded. "Since even I couldn't get him to consider it. Try...try not to abuse that too much Carly."

"You know better," Carly responded.

"Do I?" Lancer said, quirking a smile. Then she followed her mate upstairs.

X

X

X

Unlike the last two times Rodimus went into isolation, the whole group knew precisely where he was at all times. In bed, on his side, facing the wall, not the window. If he changed this pose to eat or use the bathroom, none of them caught him at it. Lancer did come down once in a while, but only to do the dishes from the trays of food Carly sent up.

In spite of the fact that Carly sent him up a complete meal three times a day, and even though he actually ate it all, Rodimus continued to lose weight. He was beginning to look like he had some wasting disease.

After five more days of this, Marissa finally cornered Lancer when she came down with the dishes. She simply sat at the kitchen table and watched the sink, since the assassin had a way of doing this task unheard and unseen. Lancer wasn't well either though, and Marissa's ambush required nothing more than for the EDC Captain to sit quietly and wait.

"Lancer...will you tell me what's going on?" Marissa asked.

Lancer put her hands on the counter and hung her head. She turned to face Marissa slowly, lethargically. Marissa thought the mutant had also lost weight, her eyes were sunken, and they seemed to dart after movement that wasn't there.

"It goes badly," Lancer finally answered, "but it goes on."

"What is he doing? How is he doing?" Marissa pressed.

"He is going through his memories one at a time. He is trying to put them in order. We...we always thought he remembered everything, but he is discovering things he repressed. He goes over each event, again and again, until he can get through it without flashing. It is...taking a lot out of him."

"It is taking a lot out of you too," Marissa said compassionately.

"I am in charge of bringing him out of the flashbacks," Lancer said. "I should get back...he waits for me, and he wants to get this over with. He hasn't slept since we left Metroplex."

"Lancer, how much longer? Neither of you can take much more of this."

Lancer shrugged. "Until it is done. We thought we were finished, but he is remembering more and more. They were there for 28 days, but he is looping so much, and so much is fragmented. I'm sure you aren't surprised that the things he repressed are proving the hardest to get through."

"I hate to suggest this, but would Valium or something help him? I can get a prescription. He needs to sleep!"

"No..no drugs," Lancer said.

"But...!" Marissa started to argue.

"They never work like they are supposed to," Lancer told her. "His immune system is too aggressive."

"Oh," Marissa said. "Damn it."

"I'm going back up...he's getting agitated. I think...I hope...we are almost finished. I'll let you know as soon as we are," Lancer promised.

She lied though. By late the next day, when Rodimus finally remembered the hours leading up to a bloody, horned mutant walking into his cell and touching his face, both he and Lancer were too sapped to move. They just fell asleep, wrapped up in each other, and slept for a solid 18 hours.

Carly's initial panic when Lancer didn't take their dinner tray, turned to a kind of sick relief.

X

X

X

Lancer walked slowly down the stairs and felt as tired as she ever had. She used the railing as support all the way down. Almost three weeks of non-activity and she ranked her exhaustion as high as after the leech battle.

Coffee.

Coffee was important.

She walked into the kitchen and made note that Marissa was already there with her morning caffeine, and Magnus had his serving bowl of Wheaties almost gone.

They both tracked her progress across the kitchen. She imagined she must be walking like some old woman, and was rested enough to be embarrassed, but not enough to straighten up.

She reached for a mug. Her hands shook.

As she was reaching for the coffee pot, Marissa came up behind her and took the mug from her hands. Magnus put his hands on her shoulders and steered her to the table without a word. He pulled out her chair and sat her down and a few seconds later a lovely mug of the Elixir of Life appeared in front of her.

"Thanks," she said.

They were polite enough to just let her drink without saying anything. She sipped slowly, and stared into the swirls of milk and coffee in her mug. When it was gone, Marissa got up without asking and filled her another.

Nice lady, that Marissa.

"Well?" Magnus asked.

"The remembering is mostly over," Lancer said. "Now comes the hard part... putting the pieces together."

"Is he coming down?" Magnus wanted to know. He was worried, not just about Rodimus either, although that worry had a huge lead over the others, but... Springer was guilt ridden and being so careful about what he said that having a conversation with him was like watching an interview with a satellite delay. Hot Rod was subdued and stood at the bottom of the stairs when he thought no one was watching, looking up at Rodi's room. The girls were too quiet too.

Marissa hadn't been in a household like this since her grandfather had been brought home after his last, unsuccessful round of chemo.

Lancer shook her head. "He's really...thin-skinned right now, Ultra Magnus, and he's still flashing a few times an hour."

Magnus winced. One flashback a year was too much in his mind...a few times an hour...

"No wonder he's gotten so thin," Marissa whispered. "But maybe now he can start getting his strength back."

"Amen!" Lancer said. "Look, he's sleeping, but I want to be there when he wakes up. I hope I'll be down for lunch. That room is starting to drive me crazy, no offense to Carly's decor." She stood up and was happy her knees held up, even if they did shake some, but Magnus was done waiting for these two idiots to ask for help. The thought of letting her take those tottering legs up the stairs was ludicrous.

So, he just stood up, got behind her, and swept her off her feet. Marissa smiled at him and he carried Lancer right up the stairs and back to her room.

Continued in Part H


	8. Chapter 8

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part H

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part H

Continued from Part G

Two more days and Lancer was down for some meals, but not all of them. She ate quickly, quietly, and without answering any questions. Then she would disappear upstairs.

Hot Rod stood by the last step, with one leg twitching as though he were running in place even when the others were in the living room.

Magnus, after ignoring this behavior for the first dozen times or so, finally went up and put his hand on Hot Rod's shoulder.

Hot Rod didn't turn to face them. "I want to help them," he finally said, as if anyone had felt his behavior a mystery.

"I know," Magnus answered.

"I can't stand this waiting. I want to do something, but everything I can think of is probably just stupid," Hot Rod said, shaking slightly with choked adrenaline. "I didn't know anyone could get so...so sick off of just being sad, hurt, whatever he is. I want to go up there and put him outside in the sunshine. I want to make him get up and play with us! He's been lying in bed for weeks now! How can he do that? I can't sit still for an hour."

Magnus smiled at that last part. Hot Rod couldn't sit still for way less than an hour. He gave the tense shoulder another squeeze.

"Why can't we help them?" Hot Rod asked, piercing his uncle with his eyes. "Isn't that why we wanted them to stay here? So we could help them? Why aren't we helping?"

"You know," Magnus said, after a moment's reflection, "that is a good question. How's about you let me go up and see what I can do? If that doesn't work, we can always try grabbing him and throwing him in the pool. Sound good?"

Hot Rod smiled the first smile anyone had seen from him in days. "Sounds very good," he said.

Lancer heard the footsteps outside the door, knew who it was, and knew the City Commander had come prepared to do battle. Magnus knocked politely. She paused before getting up, looking a long minute at her mate's back as he lay in bed on his side.

Magnus knocked again and Lancer made a decision to surrender. She and Rodi were spinning their wheels. Maybe she was too close, too wrapped up in her mate's mind to be a catalyst for progress.

She opened the door, and let Magnus in. He raised his eyebrows in question, but she just smiled slyly at him. He smiled back, glad he wasn't going to have to take her on.

"My love," she said, sitting down on the bed and rubbing Rodi's back, "Magnus is here to see you."

No response.

She didn't seem surprised about that, and stood up gracefully. She, at least, had been regaining her strength the last few days.

"I need some fresh air," she told the lump under the covers. "See you boys later."

Now that got a response. Rodimus turned over and stared at her in clear astonishment. She smiled affectionately at him, bent down and gave him a kiss on his crinkled forehead, and left.

Magnus smiled at her as she walked out, and then caught Rodi's eye before the ailing Prime could turn back over. Rodimus flinched, and seemed to draw away from his friend.

Magnus sat down on the bed.

Rodimus drew his legs up and away from the City Commander.

Magnus reached out one over-sized limb and poked Rodi from all the way across the bed. "Nowhere to hide, Mr. Prime," he said.

Rodimus stared at him, wide-eyed and said "Are you crazy?" His voice was rusty from weeks of disuse. "I might attack you."

Magnus raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I suppose that's a chance I'll have to take Rodimus. Besides, right now, I'm pretty sure I could drop you."

Rodimus made a disgusted face at him and curled up, turning back towards the wall.

Magnus decided to ignore the fact he was being ignored. "You are a hypocrite," he said bluntly. Ah, a twitch! So he wasn't really being ignored. "A wise person I know, who shall remain nameless, once told me that there was no shame in asking for help, and that it was bad strategy to deny that. Well, Rodimus, I think your ammo is out, your power has run dry, and your enemies are breaking down the walls...but you aren't alone. Even Primes need to call for reinforcements sometimes."

Rodimus rolled over and looked surly.

"You haven't seen that wise person anywhere have you?" Magnus asked. "I miss him. We all do."

"He's gone. Probably all in your head anyway," Rodimus said.

Magnus reached for him again, and Rodimus flinched away. "I don't want to hurt you, Magnus. I was ready to kill Springer and I don't even remember why," Rodimus said.

"He said something stupid," Magnus told his friend. "Maybe he didn't deserve to be killed for it, but I think a broken nose has been good for him. I like these human bodies. The consequences linger."

Rodimus stared at him with those sick, feverish eyes and couldn't answer. He was clearly speechless about what he'd done, and that Magnus was making light of it.

Magnus looked back calmly. "It's the worst part isn't it?"

Rodimus frowned with confusion.

"The feeling that you're a danger to everyone around you. That nothing you will ever do will make your presence worth the price," Magnus whispered.

Rodi rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows, studying Magnus. He finally nodded.

"Rodimus, you are a Prime. You have people to get home to, and two little girls waiting for you. You don't have the option to stay in here forever."

Rodimus flopped back down onto the bed and covered his face with his hands. Behind his palms, where he thought Magnus wouldn't see, he tried to scream. If I could just let some of it out! he thought desperately, Maybe some of this pain would leave! The thought of being around his children like this left him nauseous.

Magnus watched him, not fooled for an instant, and was suddenly glad Hot Rod wasn't around to see this.

Finally Rodi gave up and ran both hands up the lank hair on his forehead.

"This is the hardest thing I have ever done, Magnus. I'm fighting a war against myself and I seem to be losing."

"Tell me what's going on," Magnus urged him. "It gets easier if you talk about it."

"You get that from your wise friend too? Cause he sounds like a real asshole to me," Rodi croaked.

"Actually, he's made a huge difference in my life, so you'd better be nice about him or I may have to rough you up," Magnus said gravely.

"I'd like to see you try it," Rodimus said. His voice broke on "try it."

"No offense sir, but right now two bunnies and a squirrel could take you so don't tempt me," Magnus snickered.

No response to that one.

"Rodi?' Magnus said.

"What?"

"Quit stalling," Magnus said.

Rodi met his eyes again and then sighed in disgust, "Maybe I will let Fucking Shit's brainwashing stand when I get home. You piss me off."

Magnus raised his eyebrows.

"OK...fine," Rodi groaned, trying to clear his throat. "I've been fighting to remember more...going through what the Jabez did to us. If you'd asked me before I started I would have told you I remembered absolutely everything, but I didn't. Now I know I don't. It's so weird Magnus. There are long stretches that I could tell you about in intense detail. I can tell you how many steps it took for the Jabez that Converted those girls in front of us to cross the room with the chip-implanter. I can tell you how many seconds it took for the drill to cut through their skulls, but I've also found things I didn't know I remembered... and there are pieces I'm still missing."

Magnus frowned deeply and waited.

Rodimus took a long, shuddering breath. "I have forced myself to go through everything until I can recall it without flashing. I have succeeded in bringing this stuff to the front of my mind, but I feel brittle. It's all close to the surface where it needs to be, but I feel like I could just snap at any moment like I did with Springer."

"Why don't you take a break?" Magnus suggested.

"I need to be able to do this Magnus. I need to be able to put it all together."

"Have you made any progress?" Magnus asked. "Did you learn anything?"

"Not as much as I wanted to. I'm having trouble focusing. I need to organize it all but the flash-backs are kind of disruptive. There's an end to their means Magnus, I can sense it, but right now I can't make sense of it," Rodimus sighed, clearly frustrated.

"I can help you with that," Magnus said. "If you will talk to me about it."

"It's dangerous," Rodimus said.

"I'm an Autobot," Magnus stated, "Or have you forgotten?"

X

X

X

They started talking. Rodimus stumbled over what he wanted to say but finally he got rolling over things that happened and what he thought they meant.

Ultra Magnus had a hard time too. The details Rodimus put forth filled him with fury, but he had promised to help, and if Rodimus sensed Magnus was cracking, then the young Prime would have surely withdrawn again. Magnus forced himself not to emote, but to concentrate. After a while though, he started getting lost in the sheer volume of horrific information.

"I need to get something to eat," he told Rodi. They had been at if for about four hours. "I think something to take notes on would be helpful too. Come with me? Maybe we can write at the table."

Distracted by the equations he was trying to put together in his head, Rodi said, "Sure. That's a good idea. Let me change...I've been wearing these clothes for two days. Maybe Carly has some kind of chart paper for her academy classes we can borrow."

Downstairs, Marissa was sitting in the kitchen holding Lancer's cold hand when she saw the mutant smile.

"Sneaky bastard," Lancer said, sipping her coffee.

Magnus had little trouble getting Rodi down the stairs. Most of the man's muscle mass had fallen away, but Rodi was brought up short by all the turning heads down in the livingroom when they made it to the top of the stairs.

"What are you all staring at?" he grumbled.

They looked up at him, each other, and then muttered various versions of "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"That's right," he said.

Magnus rolled his eyes and helped him the rest of the way to the kitchen. Lancer had a huge bowl of pretzels waiting which she put in front of her mate when he sat down.

"You abandoned me," he accused.

She stared at him with a smirk.

"Thanks," he said.

"Uh-huh," Lancer rejoined, grinning.

"Carly?" Rodi called. "Do you have any big chart paper and some markers we can borrow?"

"I sure do!" she cried, jumping up from the couch.

Magnus made an extra big sandwich. He felt he deserved it.

X

X

X

The following hours made it clear to the whole household why Rodimus was having such a hard time coming to grips with things. At the same time, it was morbidly fascinating to watch the two Autobot officers tackle it all.

Carly provided them with large chart paper and highlighter markers in numerous colors and they moved to her banquet sized formal dining room. Rodi created a sort of table sized web-graph. Each page had a heading for all the players he knew of. Jabez, Quints, Slavers, Sponsors, Mutants, normal humans, Vector Sigma, the Matrix, Decepticons, and Autobots. Then each page was broken down into further categories, histories, and details. When they ran out of room, some of the divisions gained two or three more sheets. Rodi used the high-lighters to color code things that cross-referenced with other pages.

"Yellow for Quints because they're cowards, purple for 'Cons," he explained. "Green for those money-grubbing Sponsors, red for the bloody Jabez," and so on.

They tacked still more paper onto Carly's wall with push pins to create a time-line for both their universes, hoping a comparison might give them some clues too. She never even thought of protesting the small holes in her wallpaper.

Marissa played secretary, and most of the crisp writing on the charts was hers. Lancer stuck close to her mate. Every once in a while Rodimus would just freeze and grow pale. His fresh shirt was soaked through with sweat after just a few episodes. Lancer would close her eyes and touch his thoughts to bring him around. He would blink a few times and go on ahead. The others were polite enough to pretend not to notice.

Hot Rod came in and out of the room. He would stop to watch and listen, but frequently he simply had to walk out. He knew Rodi needed to focus but the rage the young twin frequently felt was hard to contain. When it got to be too much, he would leave to collect himself and return when he no longer felt like exploding.

Foul Play was too entranced to go with him most of the time. She watched in fascination as two Autobot officers took on a challenge. It was so different! No idea was off the table. No criticism...and they were helping each other! As far as Foul Play had ever known, a leader just made up his mind and told everyone else what to do. If anything went wrong, the soldiers got blamed. If anything went right, the officer got the credit. These two debated and conceded and listened to anyone who had something to add. Even her.

They didn't care who was right. It wasn't a contest. If something proved wrong, no one got into a snit about their notion being dropped. All they cared about was that they figured it out.

"They will win!" she thought to herself. "They really will win! This is how they stand up to us even though we will do things they won't! Sooner or later they will out-THINK us and they all will get the benefit, so to hell with the credit!"

Perhaps the most surprising participant however, was Springer.

When Magnus had come down with Rodimus literally in hand, Springer winced.

Rodi's hair hung loose and greasy. His clothes draped from his body in loose folds and Carly had to find him a baby pin to keep his shorts from falling to the floor. Springer was still sporting some bruises from their altercation but it was Rodimus who looked like someone had punched him in the face. His eyes were black circles with red and green centers. On his pale face, they looked ghoulish.

The thought that he had contributed to that in any way made Springer sick to his stomach.

Right after their big fight in the livingroom, Arcee had confronted Springer about his attitude with Rodimus as soon as he could talk. The triple changer hadn't known what to say at first, because he wasn't sure what his problem was either.

Admitting Rodimus really did frighten him sometimes was just about the hardest thing Springer had ever done. Of all the people in the house, Hot Rod was closer to Springer than anyone but Arcee. They had been a few years apart at the academy, and Springer had gotten used to helping Hot Rod along. They'd been more like brothers than friends, and like brothers, they had quarreled, stupidly, right after Magnus was run over by Prime. Springer admitted, finally, to himself that the fight was mostly his fault because he had used Hot Rod as an emotional punching bag to cope with his stress.

Arcee was right. He always went on the offensive when he was feeling vulnerable. Had to be the tough guy right? Had to be sarcastic to prove nothing bothered him. To his shame, he realized the minute he had no real target to take his worry out on, he had picked his young friend as an alternative.

Then Rodimus had appeared out of nowhere during their football game, just as Springer and Hot Rod were starting to get really comfortable with each other again.

Rodimus - competent, skillful, focused Rodimus. Hot Rod's face, and friggin' Prime stuck on the end of his name Rodimus. Mated to a woman who put MAGNUS on his ass the first day...and put Springer on his ass a few days later. Sneaky, deadly, and unflappable Rodimus who sparred with a gladiator like it was nothing and dumped Springer on the ground like he was less than nothing. Traumatized, bitter, and psychotic Rodimus who had endured horrors like none Springer ever imagined and still functioned.

And where in all that was room for a simple, sarcastic straight-shooter like Springer? What room for a friendship where Springer was the one who watched out for the little kid? When this guy protected everybody with his life and his sanity, where could a common soldier fit in?

What if, in a few years time, Hot Rod didn't need him anymore?

Springer never considered that possibility before. Rodimus made it unavoidable just by walking the way he did.

It made Springer's blood boil, and he had fought back the only way he knew how. By proving to everyone (especially himself) that he wasn't frightened, wasn't worried, and didn't care.

Arcee, loving but resolute, had listened respectfully to his fears of losing his place and his friend. She pointed out, with no mercy however, that he was creating that reality much quicker with his anger. Rodimus couldn't help who he was, and while neither of them hoped Hot Rod would ever have to grow up that way, there was no denying that he WAS growing up. Springer simply had to adjust because Hot Rod was not the kind to stay contained even if you tried to contain him.

And where would Springer fit in if this Hot Rod ever changed his name to Rodimus? She had given him the only answer she could, and the one answer Springer could accept.

Springer could be right where he'd always been...at Rodi's side, to help him if he could keep up with him, or chasing behind to guard his back.

Springer had resolved then, to do just that for both twins, at least until Rodi went home. Seeing the elder twin being half guided, half carried down the stairs by Magnus almost cost Springer his vow. Surely, Rodi couldn't be well enough to even deal with Springer's apology right now.

The officers got to work in the forbidden dining room and Springer lingered on the couch. He felt eyes on him: blue, cold, and furious.

"OK...I'm going, I just didn't think they'd want me around right now Arcee! I don't know what good I'll do."

"Get your butt in there right now! If they need a glass of water, you get it! If one of them drops a pen you pick it up!" Arcee ordered.

A good warrior knows when to move. Springer moved. He found a chair at the far end of the table, turned it, and sat backwards on it while they worked. He saw Hot Rod retreat a couple of times, and wanted to join him, but Hot Rod always came back. Springer stayed. He stayed and waited for an opportunity to make things better, if not right, and he listened, even when listening made his guts churn.

Rodimus and Magnus saw him sit down, exchanged the most fleeting of raised eyebrows and kept right on working.

X

"So," Magnus said, swallowing hard to keep his voice even. "You say they questioned you, but now you think they did it to test your psychological responses?"

Rodimus nodded. "The torture they used on us was extreme, but I think it was to play us off each other. JUST to play us off each other. The things they asked us were pretty common knowledge. I could have told them anything and they would have still done what they did. I think they wanted to see for themselves that robots could feel and respond to each other's pain. I never really paid much attention to the types of things they asked us, just what they did when we answered or didn't. I wish I had - I could have kept screaming."

Magnus paused before answering, as he did every time Rodi disclosed something which infuriated him. "In other words, what we need to ask ourselves is not why they tortured you, but why they wanted to know about your emotional capacity."

Rodi nodded. "I know the original designer had some kind of plan to use Vector Sigma or a computer similar to it to transfer his twisted Jabez mind into an immortal robotic body. He gave the Quints Vector Sigma to play with and basic schematics for pre-transforming Cybertronians. The Quints' job was to produce better models, but he allowed them the room to sell their work on the side. Cue the consumer goods and military hardware. Maybe my special friends were interested in seeing if our brains actually had the capacity to house an organic mind. Especially one as swelled and conceited as a Jabez!"

"Hmm...that makes sense but I don't understand something," Magnus said.

"What?" Rodimus said.

"If the Jabez are basically Quint-like, you know, out for profit and power, why would this crazy Jabez just let the Quints sell his designs as though they were the inventors?"

Rodimus blinked at Magnus slowly. "Hey Marissa?"

"Yeah?"

"We need a new sheet. Title it 'Show me the Money' will you?"

X

X

X

A couple of hours and about two dozen flashbacks later, Spike was off to the store for more big paper, and Rodi was having nervous tremors. Every mind-calming skill Lancer had acquired during her training had been exhausted.

Marissa ordered a break and got Rodi a Gatorade. "We aren't doing anything else until you drink this and quit shaking," she said, throwing Magnus a look which told him he'd better damned well back her up.

Rodimus threw a look to his mate for reinforcements and found her looking almost as dazed and out of it as he felt. He pulled out a chair, rested his arms on the table, and rested his head on those.

"I hate Gatorade," he commented.

"You are sweating and you are drinking that," Marissa said in her best "resistance is futile" voice.

"Drink it Rodi," Carly ordered, by way of overkill.

"Rodimus, we could call it quits for the day...?" Magnus said, obviously torn.  
From somewhere within his trembling arms, Rodi said, "Mags, if you thought the answers to rescuing your brother or defeating the Quints were in reach in your head if you could just work on it, what would you do?"

Magnus sighed. 'Use up more paper."

"Right," Rodi said. "We are just coming to the fun part anyway, and I'd really like to get it over with."

"I thought all of this was the fun part," Springer remarked.

"Nah," Rodi said. "This is just the warm up. It gets fun when I'm already human and already insane. I'm so not sure I can even analyze what happened. My view of reality was so...distorted."

Springer opened his mouth to say something to the tune of, "So how is that different from your view of reality now?", thought about Arcee killing him with her bare hands, and shut his mouth again.

Rodi turned his head to look at Springer at the far end of the table. "What? No comment on that? I left you a good opening!"

Springer paused, thought, and settled on "Nah. You made it too easy."

Rodi smiled. "Sorry for trying to kill you the other night," he said off-handedly.

"Sorry for giving you reason to want to," Springer returned.

As far as they were concerned, that was enough said to square things.

"I will never, ever, ever get Autobots," Foul Play muttered to herself.

X

X

X

Spike came back with the paper and they got back to work (after Rodi's Gatorade was gone of course.)

Rodimus described the morphing chamber and how he'd hardly been aware of what was happening because he was too busy thinking vengeful, crazy thoughts.

They went over, one at a time, every test he could remember and what they thought the Jabez might have been looking for. Rodimus even tried, with some slight success, to translate what the Jabez were saying to each other in their own language. It was a complex form of speech that he hadn't spoken at the time, and didn't speak well now. What little he knew came from Lancer and the small fraction the Maelstrom crew all knew to function on the ship. It wasn't much, but it gave him a few clues here and there.

He described his first view of a Matrix cousin, and Shellshock's creation. This took a while. He flashed over his last view of Goldbug about three times in a row before he could get through it. The tests he described for them were more horrific than the robotic tests by far. Their frail human skin was punctured, boiled, seared, and severed. Once it was entirely removed with an intense chemical bath...all to test how long it would take to grow back without scarring. Their bones were broken all over their bodies - sometimes swiftly, sometime with a slow increase in pressure until the bone in question simply snapped.

Then they would be force-healed. Rodimus remembered sections of his thigh bones were removed and regrown in just a few hours. Shellshock had the whole femur taken out. It regrew by itself in about six hours and he screamed himself mute as it did.

Same thing with his left eye when they pulled it from its socket.

Rodimus flashed a few times over that one too.

Lancer, who had been standing next to her mate like a sentinel, drooped suddenly into a chair and slouched so far down that her rear almost slipped off the seat.

Rodimus described the day they took samples from his testicles by way of a large needle, and one of the last good screams he ever had with an air of nostalgia.

There was a loud snap. Magnus had cracked a marker in two. The ink ran scarlet over his fingers. Carly took one look at him, shrieked, and ran for the paper towels as only a new mother could. She had his hand safely in quarantine before the first drop of ink hit the floor.

"One would assume," Magnus was finally able to snarl, "that they did that to test your fertility."

"One would assume," Rodimus said. He rested his chin on his hand and toyed idly with the lid to his Gatorade, twirling it lazily on the table with his forefinger.

"How did they, err...test the pheromones?" Magnus asked. It seemed a natural enough question seeing as how they were already on uncomfortable ground.

Rodimus sighed, and tried to think. He came up blank. "Nothing comes immediately to mind," he answered. "Maybe they didn't." Then he paused, and frowned. Of course they must have...of course they must have. The Jabez had a test for every damned thing.

He felt cold suddenly, sick...and for the first time since forcibly opening this vile vault of memory he felt a part of himself desperately trying to shut the door.

He flashed violently to one of the memories he had completely repressed.

Continued in Part I


	9. Chapter 9

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part I

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part I

Continued from Part H

He was strapped down. Nothing new...but this time they put some kind of metal cage around his head with pins that plunged through his scalp and into the bone underneath. It hurt, but only moderately so by his new standards. He couldn't move his head at all and that bothered him. He liked to watch what they were doing. Right now they were rustling around behind his head where he couldn't see them.

This notion didn't increase his fear, but it did infuriate him to think he might miss something and leave it un-avenged.

There were three of them in the room this time, including one he associated more with the torture team than the experiment team. He wondered what was coming that required an extra set of those horrible hands.

Turning his eyes as far as he could to the right, he could see through the transparent wall to the next room. Goldbug was there. He looked so odd as a human. Oh....so that's what the thing on Rodi's head looked like. Goldbug was getting one too. And there were three Jabez working on Goldbug. Six! Unprecedented.

Look! A laser - to cut through Goldbug's scalp above the pins. Was he going to be implanted with those damned chips at last? But...weren't those usually more towards the back of the head? They took the top of Goldbug's skull off. Rodimus was only vaguely aware of the light of a laser going around the top of his head as he watched Goldbug.

There were Goldbug's brains...bloody, but not very. The laser stopped the bleeding very efficiently, yes it did. Rodimus liked the laser. He would pick it to use on one of them...soon, very soon. No doubt about it. He would pin a Jabez down and slice its head off to see its brains too. Which one though? Hmm...very important, this decision. He pondered it carefully, wishing they would quit tugging at the top of his head so he could think.

Whatever they were doing was annoying, but not particularly painful. Goldbug wasn't fighting much either for a change. Not roaring or struggling or anything like that. The Jabez next to Rodi put something down on the stand next to him. Sort of bowl shaped...covered with red blood and red hair. It interfered with his sight of Goldbug, but not too badly.

He knew what it was, vaguely, but it only bothered him in that it blocked his view of Goldbug's mid-section.

Maybe they were going to put a chip into Goldbug after all...they were attaching some wires to the surface of his brain. It didn't seem to be burrowing in like the other ones did though. The Jabez in his room blocked his view for a few minutes. How rude. Didn't they know he was watching? Couldn't they mess with those wires and things from the left so he could see?

Finally they moved, and he saw with little surprise that they had brought two more human girls into Goldbug's room. They were naked and shaved, but he knew they didn't have chips yet because they were crying and shrieking. They looked at Goldbug's head and screamed.

He wished he could scream.

Rodimus didn't like looking at the girls. They distracted him from thinking about which Jabez to scalp with the laser. He knew he was supposed to help them, but he couldn't help them. Best not to think about that. He heard more crying and screaming and thought it was the girls in Goldbug's room. Boy...they were really loud. Did it bother Goldbug that they were so loud? He wished they weren't there. They kept reminding him he couldn't help. He really liked the laser.

There were guards holding the girls. They had that blank look which told him they had chips in their heads. The girls tried to run, but the guards didn't notice. Why did his body feel so numb all of a sudden? He liked it. Almost like being an Autobot again. No pain. That was really quite overwhelming. A Jabez in Goldbug's room was pushing buttons on one of those hexagon things that was attached to the wires in Goldbug's brain.

Nothing happened as far as Rodi could see, but he did notice something that perplexed him. Both girls stopped trying to run away from Goldbug and began pulling to get to him. Maybe they were trying to help Goldbug get the top of his head back on. Rodimus felt a little bad about that. That was supposed to be his job, but he was busy thinking about the laser. Maybe the girls wouldn't understand that, but Goldbug would. Goldbug would understand about the laser. Good old Goldbug. He was understanding.

One of the Jabez in Goldbug's room said something, but Rodi couldn't hear it. Those girls must be louder than he thought. One of the chipped bodyguards heard it though. It dropped its hands to its side and the girl it was holding ran frantically to Goldbug's table. She was trying to help him! Rodi liked her at once although he couldn't see everything she was trying to do because the thing with the red hair was in the way.

How he wished they would just move that thing out of his way! He was trying to see!

The girl awkwardly climbed up on Goldbug and then straddled him for just a few heartbeats. The Jabez pressed another button. Goldbug spasmed slightly and the guard finally moved to re-catch the girl. It grabbed her and shoved her into the wall with one hand. With the other, it took one of those drills and implanted a chip, just like that.  
Rodimus felt a little sorry, but she shouldn't have tried to do his job. Rescuing Autobots was a Prime's job, and he was one of those, but he was busy.

In Goldbug's room they released the other girl, but she acted exactly like the first and Rodimus had seen that already. He thought about the laser. He thought about the drill too. Maybe if he could decide about the drill it would be easier to decide about the laser.

The other girl got her chip put in, but her screams lingered on. Rodimus was impressed by such a permanent shriek. The Jabez in Shellshock's room convened for a moment. Whatever they were saying required a lot of fast, elaborate hand gestures that made the skin folds between their separate hand sections stretch and show blood vessels. Rodi only watched because they too stood between him and Goldbug.

They let one of the guards put the top of Goldbug's head back on and use the laser again to fix it.

This worried Rodimus slightly. If he used it on a Jabez would it cut their head open or make them better? Maybe he should stick to the drill.

All three of Goldbug's Jabez came into his room to stand around him, completely blocking his view of Goldbug.

He looked at the ceiling. Turning his eyes so far to the right for so long was making them run and he couldn't see when they leaked. Maybe they would move soon.

There was a Jabez voice behind him and some sort of low buzz.

A few minutes later, the screaming and crying became a sort of confusing moaning with shorter screams of despair and fear mixed in.

Rodimus tried not to dwell on it. Deciding the laser might be a bad choice, Rodimus now concentrated entirely on who got the drill instead.

Suddenly though, he wasn't looking at the ceiling. He was looking at a face.

The face was a young, tear-streaked human. Shaved bald. Her face was pale but splotched with red. Rodimus met her eyes and decided she had lost her mind. He wondered if he should help her find it. He decided he should. Primes were supposed to help. Was she trying to help him? She was close enough to touch him, but he couldn't feel anything right now.

"You've got it wrong," he told her. "We are supposed to help you."

Her wild, unfocused eyes met his with a strange kind of fierceness. She didn't answer him, but kind of lurched towards him. The low buzz came again, and then a bodyguard took her away. She caterwauled in fear and outrage. Rodimus heard the louder buzz of the drill again.

The overall screaming got louder.

A few minutes later another face appeared above him. Then another. Six in all came to stare at him for just a few seconds. He tried, each time, to tell them he would help them find their minds when he was finished deciding. Then, as each one left, the drill made them all quiet.

The quiet helped him make up his mind. Definitely. Forget the laser. Use the drill. All of them. All of them get the drill.

X

X

X

When Rodimus snapped out of the flashback, it was because his mate's weight hit him on the fly. She had launched out of her chair to tackle him and shake him back to reality. She was sobbing in a way he had never, ever heard her cry, and he wrapped his arms around her. Lancer's skin was cold to the touch. Her skin was ashen and her eyes reflected madness he could only assume was his own.

Knowing what he did now about both his pheromones and sex, he understood. The girls hadn't been trying to rescue him. They had been mounting him, driven to climb up on a male with the top of his skull lying on a table by a smell. Wires connected to his head had been controlling both his erection and ejaculation. The females had surely gone mad trying to reconcile their animal rut with the view of his tortured form and exposed brains. One had even orgasmed in the scant seconds they had been joined.

He met Lancer's anguished eyes. She was so beautiful to him, and how he loved her and wanted her...and he was afraid somehow this memory would stain his time with her.

"I'm sorry Lancer! I'm sorry!" he whispered.

She shrieked and stood on her knees, pushing him forcefully back against his chair with both hands.

"Don't you DARE!" she cried. "Don't you dare take the blame for yet another abomination they committed against you! Survivor's guilt! You know it is! Rodi, you are ill! You've gone insane again! Don't you dare make it worse for yourself! Don't you dare!" Her words faltered into incoherent sobs and one hand thumped his knee sporadically.

"Lancer...those girls...one of them couldn't have been fourteen! They were children...oh...my love...what if I have...other children...?"

Lancer shuddered at the horror he was projecting at her. The image of their daughters strapped down and used as assembly line breeders, of vaguely imagined sons being used as Converted slaves. He knew what happened to babies born into Jabez hands. He just never thought any of them would be his. Not to mention the further, ridiculous terror that the memory of his first time with Lancer was somehow spoiled because it hadn't really been his first time, or that the faces of these girls would surface every time they were together from now on.

She sagged to the floor and put her head on his knee. Her fist continued to hit him weakly on the knee. What she sent to him wasn't words, but raw emotion: that she loved him, didn't blame him, didn't think anyone had escaped the base when the Maelstrom attacked, and that she wasn't about to let anything the Jabez ever did come between them. It gave him just enough strength to let this memory out of the dark.

The others looked at each other grimly. Through all the flashbacks, Lancer had stood quietly, even if her fangs reflected her rage. Her inconsolable weeping was almost as unnerving as Rodi's unfocused, wandering eyes. This one was obviously pretty bad.

Rodimus' expression remained withdrawn and vague, as he laid out for them, one disjointed thought at a time, what had happened as if it was happening again as he spoke. This was not a retelling - it was a verbal flash-back.

X

X

X

When he was finished speaking, Rodimus' eyes turned a milky aqua. His face didn't move, and waving a hand in front of his nose didn't cause a reaction. Lancer had frozen on the floor with her head still on his knee.

Marissa was standing at attention. There was a huge spread of ink where her red marker had rested on the paper while Rodi talked. Magnus tried waving his hand in front of Rodi's nose again.

"Leave them," she ordered, her voice catching. "They're catatonic."

"Will they come out of it?" Magnus asked. His voice caught too. Rage was nothing new to him, but he hadn't felt anything this potent since the Quints.

Marissa shrugged. The muscles in her shoulders ached with tension. Deep down, there was a swiftly crushed idea that maybe it would be better if they didn't. Love for them made her wish for mercy, but in the end she knew better. Hate, true hate, was foreign to her, but today she was feeling it.

Licensed psychologist as she was, Marissa knew the damage such a violation would do...and obviously Rodimus had forgotten until now, so it was as if it was just happening. All the torture, all the scars, and now he could add rape to the list of crimes the Jabez had committed against him. Rape by girls who were also victims, by girls he'd tried to talk to, by girls who were Converted in his presence seconds after, while he laid strapped to a table with the top of his skull on a tray and his brains exposed.

Marissa knew she should be thinking of ways to help him, but knew what she could do was limited, and her fury was so very unlimited. A look at her fellow natural-born humans showed her they were as sickened as she. Marissa doubted the Autobots could truly comprehend rape's damage - they were too new to organic life, but Rodimus. Rodimus had a mind-link to a human woman, and nearly a decade of experience living a double life.

She knew he would no longer be spared by his naivety.

Evaluating the Autobots automatically, she saw Magnus looking almost pensive, Foul Play looking confused for the most part, and Springer seemed sort of resolved as if he had come to a life-changing decision. Arcee, the most culturally advanced of the bunch looked both green and furious. Of all of them, Arcee and Hot Rod probably had the best idea of what this implied for Rodi since they both absorbed human nuances almost without effort.

Marissa threw a glance at Rodi's young twin and was a bit shocked in spite of her predictions. Hot Rod's eyes might not turn green when he was angry, but they blazed just as bright as Rodi's did. In this capacity at least, he matched his older counterpart. His frown silently screamed of murder.

Marissa regarded Rodi's lax face and thought of the disjointed, clearly insane voice telling them about watching Goldbug. None of it about himself, other than his obsession with the laser and the drill. His need to help, his need to be the protector he assumed a Prime to be, had splintered his mind into inventing other priorities because it couldn't cope with failure on such a cataclysmic scale.

Marissa saw Magnus' hands clenching and unclenching. She saw Spike looking utterly nauseous. Carly - tears running down her face in waves, un-wiped, unnoticed. Marissa wondered in a vague way, if anyone else in this little fish-bowl of a house was about to go a mad as Rodi. The wrath rose in her again. She wondered if she were one of them.

X

X

X

Lancer followed Rodimus into catatonia. He needed to escape, almost to reboot himself. As strong as he was he'd had enough and he curled up his mind. When Lancer first rescued him, he had experienced bouts of catatonia. They were marooned on a barely habitable world with no intelligent indigenous life. He needed advanced medical care and had only a cranky, inexperienced assassin to provide it, and needed psychological care as well. The same cranky assassin was just about as good at that as she was handling his medical needs.

He had healed physically only because he had the Jabez to thank for upping his immune system. Mentally, his sense of duty had kept him alive, even when he was telling himself it didn't matter anymore. The link with Lancer had helped him love life again, even if it was only between assassination runs.

The "new" information this flashback had thrown at him disturbed him and made him feel unclean, but he had already made this journey, and this time she was there from start to finish. It was just a matter of assimilating some new information. Working one new horror into the tapestry wasn't all that difficult really.

There was also a strange sense of relief.

This was it. Somehow he knew he had hit the bottom of it. Anything else he might remember would be trivial details. This memory was the deepest, darkest, most poisonous he would find and having it out put something in him to rest at last.

It wasn't the scream he longed for, but it would serve.

They came back to their senses only about fifteen minutes after fading out of them. Lancer touched her mate's face once. Her love and respect for him was absolutely unchanged by anything he had just revealed to himself and he wondered how he was so stupid as to think it might be. In the end, that was all he really cared about.

The thought he might have children lost out there still terrorized him though.

It's unlikely, Love. You know it. They wouldn't have moved breeding females so soon. We know Converts abort easily. Robert didn't just blow that base, he chewed it through the engines....and I'm pretty sure I remember reading in the reports that Jordan found a roomful of Converted girls which he put down. Try not to worry about it too much until we get home to check, OK?

Heh...who me? Worry? Really now... Rodimus sent. The mental tone in his voice was lighter than it had been since the Primus frieze. He felt cleansed in a way, as if this one memory had been festering and needed rupturing like a boil.

She grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him somewhat violently.

The rest of the room, which had been debating furiously whether it was safe to move them or not suddenly fell silent.

Rodimus caught Marissa's stunned expression and held up one finger. He'd be with her in a minute. He closed his eyes and gave back as good as he was getting.

"Well," Magnus said, "There's one thing none of us thought to do."

Marissa elbowed him in the gut.

Shortly Rodimus was asking them if they were up to getting back to work.

"You really are insane you know," Magnus told him.

"Well. That's true, but it's a crutch. I need to get over it," Rodimus smiled. This from a grey-skinned, trembling man who looked like a vagrant prophet.

"Oh," Marissa said, "Just like that? You...you were just remembering that...that atrocity, and now you're just over it?"

"No...not just. Marissa...that memory is by far the worst, but it wasn't yesterday. I think I needed to get that one out. I feel almost better now that it's out. Besides, it was one thing when I had nothing to do and I was catatonic. Now, I have work to get done. I've already done my healing, Marissa, I just had to undo a little of it to get this over with."

"Just another day at the office for you, right?" Marissa snapped. "Putting yourself through hell and now it's all good right? Do you see your mate? She looks like she died a week ago and you look even worse!"

"We both know better than that," Rodimus whispered. "I want to get back at them for Goldbug, for those kids, for my people and my family. Even for me. Freaking out isn't going to get me anywhere. Getting back on this just might. Will you help me or not?"

"I wish I could go back with you," Hot Rod growled.

"You can't," Rodimus said, looking at his twin with a bit of alarm.

"I know," Hot Rod answered quietly, "I just wish I could."

Rodimus stared at his twin, too tired to temper the worry that creased his face.

"Don't panic, Asshole," Hot Rod said, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning at his older counterpart. "I'm not going nuts just hearing what you went through. I'm just furious. I don't get the idea of having kids very well, but I can read you enough to know there is nothing in my life that means as much to me as your kids mean to you. Not even the Autobots. Messing with that is the worst thing they could do other than hurt the girls you already have. No one has ever hurt me like that, but if someone ever did.... I just want to help you stop them, that's all."

"We all do, Hot Rod," Magnus stated simply. "We are helping by analyzing this."

Hot Rod nodded, but his stance didn't relax at all. Foul Play got up from the table and took his hand. His was sweating, and he held onto her fingers too tight, but she didn't tell him so.

Lancer shook her head slowly, as if she'd been struck and was trying to clear it. Her body was half fanged, as if she were too stressed to return to normal, but too tired to completely change.

"Please...let's just get this over with," she said.

Marissa glared, "If I had a place that could handle a mutant and an Autobot I'd have you both hospitalized!"

"Ah," Rodimus said with a faint smile, "but you don't. Aren't we a pain in the ass?"

She scowled at him.

He grinned at her.

She scowled deeper, not impressed by the way that smile looked on that shriveled face.

He grinned wider.

Marissa threw her hands up in surrender. "After this you are done or I'm sedating both of you no matter what Lancer says!"

"Deal," Rodimus and Lancer said together.

"So what did we learn from this mess?" Arcee asked fiercely.

Rodimus sighed, and struggled to go back over the memory without falling into it.

"They were testing our pheromone output. Obviously it works even better than I suspected if it can get a terrified teenager who's probably just been raped by the slaver that caught her to jump on a man, especially one with the top of his head cut off." He shuddered. "It was more than that though. One or two test subjects would have proven it. Wait...two. They tested Shellshock on two. The Jabez blocked my sight, but not that long...why was I put to so many? There were...there were six..."

"Maybe you were the better candidate?" Spike suggested. "I mean, you're bigger than Goldbug, and faster."

"Not as a human I'm not," Rodimus said. "You don't get what Shellshock looks like. He's nearly a foot taller than Magnus. He weights even more than an eight foot tall man should. He...doesn't take to exams well, but we think his molecular structure has been altered. It's like they wanted to make him human but leave as much of his Autobot density and dimensions intact as they could. He heals and moves faster than I do. He takes blows that would kill a normal human and doesn't even bruise. They took every modification they did on me to extremes on him. If that's what they wanted, shouldn't he have been the main....sperm donor?"

"Love," Lancer said. "Are you sure your...partners were just random victims? The girls could have had specific traits they were looking for too."

Rodimus drew a deep breath and closed his eyes, forcing himself to go over the line up of faces in his memory. Don't focus on their maddened expressions. Don't focus on the signs of extreme terror and lust. Look at them as a commodity. What did the Jabez see in them? Not their innocence...not their fear...not their disgust and their confusion to be driven to voluntarily mount him. Not the second, so young she was barely developing and who surely didn't know what she was doing... Nor the fourth..the oldest...her back had arched on the first push down... Her eyes were fixed and dilated unevenly.

Lancer brought him back out of the flashback twice before he made it through all six of them.

He rested his hand on his forehead. "Two were mutants for sure. Strong enough to require neural inhibitors to shut down their powers. I could see the collars."

"So...it is possible those girls were specially selected for you to impregnate," Lancer said, gently as she could. "Maybe they just didn't have suitable partners for Shellshock."

"Maybe..." Rodimus said doubtfully.

"It makes no sense at all to me," Spike said. "If the Jabez are so advanced at genetic engineering that they can give a robot with no parents viable sperm, then why do they need robots to breed at all? If they are looking for something specific, why don't they just custom make it?"

"Whatever it is, assuming there is an 'It' they are trying for, it must be complex," Carly said sadly. She kept thinking of her twin's lost son, and all the mothers who lost children to Rodi's mad enemies. Looking at him, knowing he was afraid he might have sons or daughters caught up in the Jabez machine, broke Carly's heart.

"They do custom mutants for clients who can pay for them," Lancer said grimly. "I posed as a buyer a few times before I..er...gained such a reputation. They are very expensive, ordered through middle-men, and results are not guaranteed. You pay up front and then you wait for the mutant to grow enough to develop their powers...usually puberty. On the other hand, if you have the money, you can also pay for rushed delivery - either a mutant that comes into their power as a child or one that grows faster than normal."

"Like Alex?" Marissa whispered.

"Yes," Lancer said, just as quietly. Rodi squeezed her hand.

"That does not help me understand what they'd want Rodimus' offspring for," Spike complained. "If they can do that why bother with turning him into a breeding machine? ... Sorry Rodi...that came out badly."

"Why are you sorry? It's only the truth," Rodimus said. "Besides...you raise a good question.... What good am I to them? The Transformers aren't the goal. They are an offshoot...a side project. One Jabez had an interest in us and all of our history springs from that. The humans are the real project. Earth is the lab, the humans are the project."

"But why aren't they just using a real lab?" Spike persisted.

"They are...they have entire bases which are nothing more than puppy mills for human babies," Lancer said with a distinct growl.

"But then why leave Earth to limp along chaotically?" Marissa wondered. "As meticulous as they are, you'd think they'd want to control every variable."

"Maybe they're hoping they'll just get lucky," Springer said. He wasn't serious.

Rodimus arched an eyebrow. "Actually, I think you may have something there. Maybe the controlled stuff goes on in the breeding centers but Earth is," Rodimus paused and winced, "more like a free range herd of horses...sometimes you get better results with natural selection. So...where do a couple of humanized Autobots and a Decepticon fit into this? A means to an end...we aren't the point...we are a means to an end. What end though?"

"Well," Marissa said, "Edana and Alexandra are the end, aren't they? I hate to put it that way, but they are what the Jabez were after right? Your children."

Continued in Part J


	10. Chapter 10

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part J

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part J

Continued from Part I

Lancer's eyes glowed and Rodimus grimaced, baring his teeth.

"Right," he finally said huskily. "My kids. Statistically very improbable little people. Edana is a class one empath at age six. She sees far beyond normal human vision on both the infra-red and ultra-violet ends. She is both physically and mentally advanced for a human child that age and she has a latent potential to be a class one pyrokenetic which may or may not develop when she hits puberty."

"She'll be able to burn things?" Marissa asked incredulously.

"A class one pyrokenetic can burn things on a planet-changing scale whether or not they are actually flammable," Lancer said.

"We are not really looking forward to dealing with an angsty teenager that can cause fires," Rodimus sighed.

"Geez...good luck!" Spike said.

"What about Alexandra?" Magnus asked.

"I told Marissa earlier," Lancer responded quietly. " We can't get a reading on Alex. We just know at the rate she's growing she will reach puberty before her sister. She has never been sick, not once. Nothing upsets her stomach, no teething, no colic, no nothing. She is always comfortable. She never shivers or sweats. Scans just seem to not happen. Robert nearly killed me when I used the Sigma Beta to try and analyze her. He said it was doing so many calculations it ceased running the rest of the ship and nearly crashed our gravity and life-support programs and their back-up systems."

"What...what does that mean?" Carly cried.

Lancer and Rodimus shrugged.

"Hey Rodi?" Hot Rod asked. "Do you think Edana can connect to a Matrix crystal like you and Lancer can?" It was an innocent enough question - he was thinking about inheriting things from your parents, as he had apparently inherited Optimus' sensitivity to the crystal.

Rodimus' head snapped around like a viper. Lancer's did exactly the same at the same instant. They both stared at Hot Rod as if he were an unsavory stranger bearing the worst of news.

"Sorry!" he cringed, all of his earlier rage and bravado squashed by the unnerving twin stares.

"Well?' Magnus prompted, hoping to get his nephew off the hook. "Can she?"

Rodimus' eyes turned inward. "I don't know," he finally confessed. "She...she might. I can't think of anything specific, but she sees so much of the spectrum we hear her talking about things she sees that we can't all the time. If she can feel it...she probably just associates it with Optimus. I haven't carried it in her lifetime, except for once, and she wasn't there."

"There's the ones on the Maelstrom too, Rodimus," Lancer frowned. "She's been surrounded by them since she was a toddler. If she senses them, she probably assumes we all do."

"Well...that's it then," Rodimus whispered. "If they're breeding for Matrix sensitivity that explains why I was so...busy... that day." His frown deepened into a rabid snarl and he slammed his fist down onto Carly's mahogany table knuckles first. "I am fed up with being taken advantage of because I can talk to a fucking rock!"

This statement raised a few eyebrows, not that anyone blamed him.

"It still makes no sense to me though," Spike persisted. "Why would they want that? If the Matrix crystals are the basis for their technology and culture like you said, why would they want to breed that into another species? It's what makes them special...what makes them able to do what they do."

Magnus nodded. "He's right. They're throwing their best advantage to the wind. Even if they thought they could contain every mutant bred on Earth, which obviously they can't," he said, nodding to Lancer. "All it would take would be one breeding pair to be stolen or escape...then their monopoly on instant memory transfer and all the rest of it would be lost. You don't risk your advantage without a desperate reason."

"Desperate..." Rodimus mumbled, his eyes narrowed to squints. Thoughts flashed between him and Lancer in a full psych -merge. They didn't do this often...it was tiring and it scared Lancer with how deep they could go, but it allowed them to pour through their separate memories as if they were truly of one mind, and at a much faster speed than they could normally manage.

Lancer pulled up from their link a bit and asked the others an odd question. "How many sapient species would you say are bipeds in this dimension?"

Marissa and Magnus looked at each other in confusion. "Um...why...?" Marissa asked.

"Just tell me," Lancer growled, although they knew she wasn't angry with them.

"I don't know an exact number," Magnus said. "Perceptor might know, but I'd say less than two percent...why?"

"About the same then. Bipeds...stupid design," Lancer said. "Frees up the hands, sure, but lots of species just add extra limbs. Solves that problem nicely. Trust me, there are times I bless my tail...especially when Edana goes right and Alex goes left. But two-footed locomotion...bad. Every step a controlled fall. Guts and throat exposed and vulnerable, not to mention the groin. Every major joint also exposed from the fore or the rear. I should know...I take advantage don't I? Why would a race of robots whose functions range from construction to demolition, from ponderous strength to escape velocity speed...why in the hell would such heavy, towering hulks be fucking bipeds in their root form? In our universe, it's to copy the Jabez blue-print for humans. We are essentially the same species....but why are humans bipeds? If the Jabez wanted better warriors to sell the could have modeled after any number of more physically powerful species. Mutant powers? The Drazi have more than their share of teleporters, telepaths, fore-seers, and so on AND they are stronger, tougher, and live five to six hundred years. Why then? Why are humans bipeds? Who do we resemble?"

"The Jabez?" Foul Play said. She was the only one detached enough to actually put it into words.

"Right," Lancer growled. "The Jabez."

"But...why?" Hot Rod asked.

His twin stood shakily, unable to sit in spite of his exhaustion. He held himself up with his arms braced wide on the edge of the table.

"Simple. If we are right, and some disaster befell these people way back when, it nearly wipe them out. You know I've never seen or even heard rumors of a Jabez female? The Maelstrom crew 'interviews' every slaver and Sponsor they take down by having Kain strip their minds. I 'interview' them my own way. None ever, ever, have mentioned dealing with a Jabez female. They are selling mutants to fund their research, but the real goal is to build something they can breed with."

"Ew," Arcee said.

"But their hands...their eyes!" Carly cried at the same moment.

"Tinker-toys," Lancer said. "It's the Matrix sensitivity they need to work on. My guess is they get it fairly regularly, but it doesn't breed true for some reason. So they have controlled facilities, but they let Earth run wild just in case. Even our life-span is short... like fruit flies. Faster generations for faster production. Maybe, in Rodimus, they were hoping to take a shortcut to a viable breeding male."

"You realize Lady assassin, that if you are right then our daughters are the answer to their prayers," Rodimus said coldly.

"They haven't got a prayer," Lancer hissed.

X

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X

Carly broke up their meeting by heading off to make dinner and exacting a promise that they would come eat when she was done.

Rodimus promised with less reluctance than she'd feared. "I need to think about this...to strategize what we'll do if it turns out to be true, but I think I've fried my brain enough for one day."

He glanced at Springer with a faint smirk, and then raised his eyebrows when Springer merely grimaced. "What? Nothing about my brains being pre-fried or refried or over-cooked already?"

Springer glared at him and then threw a furtive glance at Arcee.

Rodimus looked from one to the other. "You know, I should have guessed Arcee was the key to getting Springer to watch his mouth! Wonderful! I shall implement this at home when we get there. 'Whipped! Table for one!' This's almost as good at the day I realized how to get Blurr to shut up!"

"Oh?" Magnus asked. "How do you do it?"

"I pick him off the floor! Some humans can't talk if you hold their hands still, but with him, it's the feet!" Rodimus explained smugly.

"I know," Magnus grinned. "I do the same thing!"

They smirked at each other and Magnus helped Rodi into the living room. He tried to spare Rodi's dignity a bit by making it look more like they were just going together. In actuality, Magnus carried most of Rodi's weight all the way to the couch. Lancer followed.

In a complete breech of house-hold etiquette, Rodimus lay down lengthwise on the couch, leaving the rest of the many bodies to scatter around the room on the floor and odd chairs. The only exception was Rodi's mate who grabbed him by the shoulders, lifted him, and slid herself under his head so he rested in her lap. He didn't look like he minded, but he did frown a bit when she immediately fell to sleep.

"My poor Lancer," he said, mostly to himself. He caught Marissa eyeing him and shrugged. "In some ways this stuff upsets her more than it does me. I've never had much use for me. She loves me, and she's put up with all of this before she fully got over the leech thing. This has really been a vacation for the record books."

"Maybe you should get a new travel agent," Hot Rod said from the floor. He wasn't looking at his twin, being busy loading up a new video game Spike had bought for laughs.

Rodimus bit his lips, looked ready to say something, and then just shook his head.

Hot Rod seemed to sense his twin's consternation and turned to look at him. "What?" the younger version said sharply. He was clearly still fuming.

"Nothing...sometimes this twin stuff creeps me out too, that's all," Rodimus said.

"Whatever," Hot Rod said harshly. He had no idea what game Spike bought but he was hoping for LOTS of lasers and explosions. Rodimus rested his head back down on Lancer's lap and closed his eyes.

Hot Rod's video game was short on lasers, but it had explosions and bunnies, lots of bunnies.

X

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By the end of the next night they were all taking turns fighting for the controller and laughing like crazed loons over demented rabbit gladiator games - including Magnus and Rodimus who were challenging each other on the fronts of high score, best time, and who could laugh the most demented laugh. No one challenged Lancer in the last department though, she was in a league by herself.

By the end of the night after that, Spike was complaining the no man had the right to avoid animal protein the way Rodi did and still put on muscle mass with such alarming speed.

The morning after that, Lancer scared everyone out of bed with a silent invasion of their rooms and a knife at their throats. Training sessions were back on with a vengeance.

Later that day, news came in from Optimus. The whole gang crowded into Spike's office to listen. Optimus told them Wheeljack and Perceptor had found a way to transfer crystal data. They felt they were on the verge of a breakthrough with the programing as well. The testing on the morphing chamber was going well too. Estimated time of completion for all projects- three weeks.

Arcee and Springer cheered when they heard that news, and ran off together to enjoy the pool. Spike and Carly were happy too. Carly proclaimed a special dinner which meant Spike was off to the grocery store for the second time that day. Foul Play got up and silently left the room, and Marissa grew pale. Then she smiled quite wide and went off to help Carly set the table. She whistled.

Rodimus leaned back in Spike's office chair and pursed his lips. Lancer patted his shoulder and headed after Marissa. His hands laced across his stomach and his thumbs tapped together. He threw a glance at Hot Rod who was looking in the direction Foul Play had gone with obvious confusion. Magnus, on Rodi's other side, looked somewhat stunned.

"Three weeks," Magnus muttered to himself.

"That's not much time," Rodimus observed unnecessarily.

"All this time I've been counting the days, hoping this all would end, but three weeks," Magnus said. He turned to look down at Rodi who met his eyes unblinkingly. Marissa whistled, a bit off key from the kitchen. "Is...is this what you and Lancer felt when you...when you were getting ready to part?"

"Not the same. We didn't have much warning. We were marooned forever for all we knew, but the teleport belt finally picked up a jump point and went off one night while we were... We both nearly jumped out of our skins. I..I almost smashed it honestly, but I didn't. After that it was just packing and jumping and finding our way back to Cybertron. Not much time to worry or say goodbye."

Hot Rod wandered off as well.

"You had no real time to think did you?"

"That was probably a good thing," Rodimus confessed.

"What would you have done with three weeks Rodimus?"

Rodimus grinned. "Funny you should ask," he said.

X

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X

That evening they held a full house meeting, and Rodimus laid out an elaborate plan, taking all their input. No idea was too outrageous. Some portions required a vote and then a logistical discussion. There were key elements Rodimus would not budge on, as well as certain areas they had to agree on, but each of them was allowed an option that was entirely for themselves.

Thus began the legendary road-trip.

Rodimus and Lancer felt strongly that there were certain things a Transformer who was experiencing humanity needed to try - either to understand humans better or just for the sheer fun of it. They mapped out the next three weeks almost to the minute. Rodimus insisted on hitting the ocean, a few coaster parks, and of all places, the Everglades. Lancer included horse-back riding. Carly wanted to add scuba diving, although they decided they could only afford time for snorkeling. Marissa asked for a hot-air balloon flight. Spike's addition would take them furthest from home - caving at Mammoth cave.

The Autobots all got to pick something they wanted to try. Arcee wanted to go dancing at a nightclub.

"We already did that!" Springer protested. He did not look fondly back on that evening in spite of how it ended up.

"No we didn't! Rodimus and I were the only ones who danced and I was so...distracted I hardly remember! Besides! I don't want to dance with HIM anyway! No offense Rodi!"

"Oh my broken heart!" Rodimus said, throwing the back of his hand up over his eyes. Lancer hit him.

Hot Rod wanted to try water-skiing, but again, the time to learn wasn't available, so he had to settle for jet skis and parasailing. He didn't seem too disappointed.

Foul Play didn't know what she wanted.

"I don't know enough to choose!" she protested defensively. "It's not that I won't make a choice, I just don't know what's out there!"

Lancer came to her rescue. "You want a trip to an ice-cream parlor," she told her student.

"I do?" Foul Play asked.

"Yes."

"OK! I want a trip to an ice-cream parlor!" Foul Play demanded with authority. "What's an ice-cream parlor?"

They all laughed, even she laughed. It felt good, and it felt so very fragile.

It was Magnus' request that brought tears to Carly's eyes and froze Marissa in her seat.

"I want twenty-four hours alone with Marissa," he asked quietly.

X

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Rodimus and Spike made the most of that computer and booked four rooms at a resort on Miami beach. They were able to fill most of the water-sport requests and the horse-back riding all at one place. Reservations on a private tour boat covered the snorkeling trip and the para-sailing. There were jet skis that could be rented by the hour - although Rodimus finally had to have Lancer short out Hot Rod and Foul Play's jet ski before they would come in for dinner.

After dinner, and a nice walk on the beach, they found a small ice-cream parlor. Lancer informed Foul Play about the civilized custom of allowing customers a small taste of each flavor. The Decepticon tried each and every one and ended up with a five flavor banana split with three kinds of syrup, whipped cream, and sprinkles. Placed in front of her, it eclipsed her face....not that the rest of them had any less. The clerk had the awe-inspiring and unprecedented experience of actually seeing someone finish one of their large treats by themselves....three times over. He wasn't as shocked by the two enormous men as he was by the slender, black-haired woman though. She seemed very happy. So was the clerk. He got a big tip.

Next it was off to the Everglades where they took an air boat ride and hiked around in fascination and confusion.

"Why did you want us to come here?" Hot Rod asked his twin.

"You aren't enjoying yourself?" Rodimus asked. He had gone back to carrying Daniel almost full time again. The baby looked at Hot Rod with a quizzical expression too, almost as if mirroring Rodi's question.

"Well...yeah, but it's so...well...quiet," Hot Rod said dubiously.

Rodimus raised an eyebrow. They were surrounded by croaking wading birds and squawking invisible frogs. Once in a while an alligator would roar and make Carly jump.

"OK, fine," Hot Rod said, "quiet isn't a good word but..." He didn't want to say dull. It wasn't dull, it was actually pretty interesting, but it seemed so...so very un-Hot Roddish. His twin was only 30 odd years old, and this trip seemed like something out of a retirement planner.

Rodimus had that self-satisfied, know-it-all look on his face that told Hot Rod the asshole pretty much knew exactly what Hot Rod was thinking and found it amusing.

"You aren't gonna answer me are you?" Hot Rod sighed.

Rodimus grinned and caught up with Lancer who was hanging on to the back of Foul Play's capris.

"Girl! Do not fall in!" Lancer was saying.

Foul Play was bent double over the railing trying to get a better look at the water.

"I want to see all those little thingies in the water! They are everywhere," Foul Play said, undeterred.

"So are the gators," Lancer reminded her. "Leave the minnows alone - you can see them better over there in the shade."

Arcee and Springer were watching a nest of fledgling egrets getting fed. Spike was incredulously filming a pack of vultures pulling on the tail of a large, sunning alligator for the apparent fun of it. Marissa was pointing out a hunting osprey to Magnus and they tracked it until it caught something and carried it away.

"My mom and dad would like this place," Hot Rod admitted. "There's just life...everywhere." He looked at his twin. "You brought us here to remind us we need to protect places like this too, didn't you?"

"Nah," Rodimus said. "Would I do something like that? I just think the vultures are funny! They fuck with the gators every morning. It keeps them amused until the thermals warm up."

"Why are there so many different kinds of bugs here?" Foul Play wanted to know. "Look Hot Rod! This one has your colors!" She held up a four inch long, red and yellow grasshopper that crawled happily all over her hand and up her arm. "It's nothing like Kickback at all!"

"Ok, fine!" Hot Rod said to his twin. "I hate it when you look so smug!"

Then they went north, and they actually rented a Winnebego to do it. The thought of going any long distance with ths bunch cramped in a mini-van was enough to give Spike nervous ticks.

Then it was a full five days in Tampa and Orlando. The adventures they had were as numerous and diverse as stars in the sky...at least once they convinced Hot Rod and Foul Play that ALL roller coasters were worth trying and that their first was not merely a mind-blowingly fun fluke.

"Humans understand flying after all!" Foul Play had shrieked with joy as they went down the first vertical drop. Hot Rod just laughed uncontrollably all the way down. The two of them were holding hands up over their heads, and afterwards they just wanted to go back on the same ride again and again. Once Rodi assured them that most coasters induced similar euphoria, they tore off on their own and weren't seen again under it was time to rendevous at the gates. (They were prompt - Magnus and Rodimus had threatened them with staying in the hotel the next day if they weren't on time.) The only disappointment was there were a few rides Magnus and Springer had to sit out on because the restraints simply wouldn't close around them.

Adrenaline addictions well sated, the next journey was a totally different sort of ride. They went up as couples for two hour tours in hot air balloons, per Marissa's wishes. They all took away something different from the nearly silent ride, but that night there was a lot of hand holding and not much conversation.

Some of the best experiences were unplanned however. They stopped at an all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut buffet for lunch as they drove and revolutionized the lives of every one of the Autobots - except Rodimus of course. He looked a little disgusted at the amount of food they packed away. The manager of the restaurant nearly had a heart-attack. Spike simply wondered why he hadn't thought of this until they were almost ready to leave his care.

They stopped for hot peanuts along the roadside as they headed north. Picnicked at a rest stop and were hounded by over-fed, semi-tame racoons. Spotted a bear walking along the roadside as they headed into the mountains and discovered Lancer had an unexpected talent for identifying birds.

She grinned nervously over the eyebrows this raised. "I wasn't born an assassin ya know," she told them, with a hint of a growl. They all decided it was best not to press the issue.

At Mammoth Cave (Spike's request) they didn't have hotel rooms, they had little wood-side cabins. They spent two nights there and Magnus almost flew down a ravine when a great horned owl called from a tree he and Marissa were walking under to get back to their cabin after dark.

Spike was right about the cave. It amazed them and it was something they would never be able to experience once back in robot form, but they found the myriad fire-flies on the surface just as fascinating.

Standing in a clearing surrounded by flickering insects, Foul Play turned to Hot Rod and said, "My people will never understand this! I am trying to imagine explaining how...how amazing this is and every scenario I think of ends with me getting shot. They need to know about this...but I don't know how to tell them when I go home."

Hot Rod didn't say anything, he just grabbed her and held on. He'd never pressure her, but he didn't want her to talk about going home like it was inevitable.

They headed south by a slightly different route and stayed in St. Augustine. There they were given Magnus' request. Twenty-four hours alone with their partner, except for Rodi and Lancer. Rodimus both gratified and saddened Carly by offering to watch Daniel for that time period. She hugged him as she handed her son's heavy luggage of diapers, formula, and fresh clothing. She was thankful for time with her husband, but knew this was Rodi's way of saying goodbye to her son. She only wished Daniel was old enough to remember this strange, sad man who loved him so much.

Each couple made the most of their twenty four hours in their own way.

The drive back to Miami was pretty much silent, except for Rodimus who spent his non-driving time talking to Danny and trying to teach him to say "dam", as that was Edana's first word. Spike and Carly raised eyebrows at each other and silently agreed not to interfere, but also prayed Rodimus was unsuccessful. Marissa had an unexpected allergy attack which made her eyes run all day and everyone kindly decided not to wonder aloud that they'd never realized she had allergies. It must have been contagious. Foul Play, Hot Rod, and Magnus all suffered short rounds of it too.

When they got back, Spike contacted Metroplex. Optimus told him that the morphing chamber was in final testing and the teleporter was as finished as it would ever be. They had three days.

Rodimus requested a meeting with Optimus, Elita, and Ratchet. He brought Magnus along, but wouldn't let any of the others come. He drove, and Magnus sat on the driver's side without saying a word. He just looked out the window and blinked a lot. Damned allergies.

X

X

X

When they got to Prime's office, Elita let them in with a smile, and Optimus was sitting at his desk, looking a bit nervous. They hadn't seen Rodimus since the conversation with Primus, but Magnus and Spike had kept them updated on the visiting Prime's struggle to review his memories. Optimus was a bit concerned this meeting was to go further rounds over the Matrix and the Jabez, but that wasn't Rodimus concern.

"Morning everyone," he waved cheerfully. He was in human form and he gave a pale looking Magnus a push towards a seat. "I guess you are wondering why I wanted to talk, but wouldn't tell you why over the phone."

"You are right about that," Optimus said.

"I want to talk to you about your humanized gang and I don't want them to have any preconceptions. The only reason I brought Magnus in on this is that he's their direct superior and he will need to keep an eye on his troops as well as himself."

This caught Magnus' attention. He was depressed, but he was still Ultra Magnus and his troops always took priority.

"Go on," Optimus said, exchanging a long worried look with his mate.

"I just want you to be aware of how much this whole thing will have changed your people. Even when it's over, it won't be over. You would think that once they are back to normal that all will be well, but I can tell you from personal experience that the adjustment back to robot form is just as hard as learning to be human. There will be real physical and emotional consequences and as their doctor and their leaders you should be on guard for them," Rodimus said seriously.

"What do you mean?" Ratchet asked.

"Sensory deprivation for one," Rodimus said. "It is so hard to adjust to the pure level of sensation you get as a human, but once you do, an Autobot's body feels...numb. Disconnected. Like it isn't even really yours. I've currently got two Autobots who can morph back and forth like I do. Magnus and Jazz. Both of them use this as part of our covert operations and Magnus has Marissa to spend time with, but if either of them are strictly in Autobot form for more than a few days at a time, they both start complaining. Magnus doesn't run into that trouble much because he does go home to Marissa almost every night, but if I have Jazz running a long operation he gets...agitated."

"Jazz?" Elita asked incredulously. "Agitated?"

"Sometimes down-right cranky, Elita," Rodimus told her. "I know that seems impossible given his personality but he gets depressed and irritable because he feels claustrophobic in his own body. I have no idea if your guys will be able to morph back and forth as we do. I can tell you, after Lancer left me I spent a full year as an Autobot. I was sick with trying to sever our link, and exhausted trying to set up all the security and do my job and fend off slavers, but thinking back, I also think a lot of it was also just being me again. By the end of that year, I was readjusting, and going human again came as a renewed shock, but it took a full year to stop having thoughts that my sensors weren't working or that something was wrong. I'm not saying your guys won't readjust. I'm saying it will take a LONG time and you need to watch them."

Ratchet frowned. "Your sensory systems are more intricate than most Rodimus," he said.

"Yeah...and I still suffered from it. That should tell you something. There is also the injury factor. I am required to report to med-bay after every fight for a quick check-over, and I think you should set that up for your guys too until you know they've readjusted."

"Why?" Ratchet asked. His calendar was full enough without a troop coming in after every fight automatically.

"Because humans get banged up on a daily basis and learn to ignore it. Between that and the lower sensation level I have let minor breaches in my fuel lines run me nearly dry without realizing. I'm pretty much over that by now, but First Aid is paranoid and won't drop it, not that I ever give anyone reason to worry or anything."

"Of course you don't," Elita said facetiously.

Ratchet nodded in understanding. "Maybe I can implant some kind of extra sensitive warning sensor to keep them on their toes. It will help them adjust."

Rodimus cocked his head sideways at Ratchet, smiled slightly, and shook his head.

"What?" the medical specialist asked.

"That's a good idea," Rodimus said. "I could have used it seven years ago."

"Anything else?" Optimus asked.

"Just watch them for depression. There are things they will miss. If they can go back and forth without too much risk, I'd recommend considering it now and then. Jazz and Magnus both have special quarters set up for their human alter-egos. We've given them identities, fake families, the works. That's part of the covert operations we run though. You guys might not need to invent pasts for you people, but you might want to set up quarters they can use for a few days at a time. It will keep them healthy and you won't have to bother the Witwickies. They can stay on base and out of trouble," Rodimus suggested.

Elita snorted. "None of these people need to be off base to find trouble, Rodimus...or haven't you noticed?"

Rodi blinked innocently at her, "Trouble? Moi? Why would I notice a thing like that?" He blinked stupidly at her a few more times and then dove right into his next, greatest concern. "While we're on the subject, I want to know what you plan to do for Foul Play?"

Optimus frowned. "I think that's between us and our son Rodimus. I know you're his twin but..."

Rodimus shook his head. "You misunderstand me Op," he interrupted. "The relationship with Hot Rod isn't the issue...or rather, it isn't the main issue. You are going to need to do something about her whether or not she stays with your son. You can not simply send her home."

Continued in Part K


	11. Chapter 11

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part K

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part K

Continued from Part I

"If she wants to leave we won't keep her prisoner," Elita said.

"Of course you wouldn't, but you must realize she is no longer safe among her own people. She isn't one of them anymore...not really," Rodimus said. He could see Magnus nodding in agreement out of the corner of his eye.

"She changed a lot since she's been with us," Magnus explained. "I doubt she can ever go back without major difficulties. I can just see her trying to explain ice-cream or roller-coasters to one of the other Cons and getting herself blasted. She's also not likely to blindly follow orders anymore. She lacks a lot of confidence around us, but she's smart, and she asks questions. Questions do not endear you to Megatron."

"Plus," Rodimus said, "there is in fact the small matter of these people she's spent so much time with. Megatron will interrogate her, and he'll use Soundwave to do it. They will get a lot of very personal information about your people out of her. Like Magnus' history and his flashbacks. Somehow I don't think Cannon-Boy will have sympathy for any of that. No matter what she says or doesn't say Megatron will get something out of her if he has to take her apart one circuit at a time. If nothing else he will guess they are friends. I don't think she'll ever pull a trigger against any of them, but I know for sure she won't against Hot Rod. I can see Megatron trying to get her to prove her loyalty by wasting one of them, and either she won't and he'll kill her, or she will out of fear and then kill herself. Even more I can see Megatron using her as bait. If he finds out how close she is with them, especially Hot Rod, I'm sure he will string her up by her circuits and send your kid the pictures. I don't have to draw you a picture of what happens next."

They stared at him for a long, long moment.

"Primus...I never thought she'd change so much," Elita mused. "We always thought she'd be short-circuiting with desire to get away from all of us...and we never considered what Megatron would do to her."

"Do you two think she wants to stay?" Optimus asked gravely. He and Elita hadn't seen anything but the back of her hands after Hot Rod's little revelation during the Primus meeting. They'd held a conversation about her with her in the room and she'd never even looked up.

Magnus shrugged. "She's afraid she won't fit in with us, and she's always saying she will never understand us...but she does fit in. At least with our little group she does. Even Springer likes her and has been better with her than he has with Rodi. I think she's too scared to know what she wants, but when she forgets to look over her shoulder, she's happy."

Rodimus met Optimus' optics, pointed at Magnus from behind his other hand, and mouthed, "So is he." Rodi wiggled his eyebrows at the older Prime and then smiled broadly at Magnus who was scowling suspiciously at him.

"What was that?" Magnus asked.

"Just agreeing with you Major General. Couldn't have said it any better me-self," Rodimus nodded and beamed.

"Uh-huh," Magnus replied slowly, "What I think Foul Play needs is assurance that the rest of this army won't tear her apart like she imagines, especially you Prime."  
"What? How can she even...!" Optimus started.

"Oh please!" Rodimus cut him off. "You are the scary monster under the bed! You are the boogey man Decepticons scare their young ones with. You are the legendary Optimus-the-Invincible-Prime....you have supernatural powers. How else could you stand up to Megatron who propagandizes his indomitable power to his people first and fore-most? You be spooky....and she is kicking herself for falling in love with your son every minute of the day."

"I...I never thought of myself from that perspective," Optimus whispered.

"You...you really think she's in love with him?" Elita asked, patting her distressed mate on the back.

Rodimus sighed. "I suppose it is weird hearing this from me, of all people, but yeah. I do."

Optimus' shoulders sagged and he rested his chin on his hand. "It is weird hearing anything from you Rodimus Prime. It is...hard...as Hot Rod's parents, to talk to you, and hear what you've been through."

"I know. I'm sorry. I did try to warn them about that," Rodimus said sadly.

"What do you think about my son?" Elita asked. "Does he love her in return?"

Rodimus winced. "Look...having parents has obviously been good for him. He's a lot more mature than I was at his age, so I don't want you to just write off what he's feeling as a kid-crush, but....I think he's so far gone he doesn't know his headlights from his tailpipe." He was answering Elita's question, but he was also pointing at Magnus again.

Magnus snorted. "You would put it that way Rodi. Actually, Hot Rod's really very good with her and when he's not tearing around like a moron, he's proving to be pretty insightful."

"I'm gonna tell him you said that," Rodimus smirked.

"Like you had to tell me that," Magnus growled. "I am not my brain-washed twin. When I see positive change I acknowledge it."

"We see some positive changes in you too, Ultra Magnus," Elita smiled.

Magnus pursed his lips and folded his arms. "I guess this enforced vacation has been good for me," he muttered.

"Yes," Elita agreed, "and Marissa has too. Have you decided if you plan to try to continue this relationship after we turn you back?"

Magnus' mouth fell open. He had been trying to find a way to ask - having Elita just state it so matter-of-factly floored him. His mouth snapped shut and he turned his cool grey eyes on Rodimus. "You put them up to that. I don't know how you did it, but you put them up to that."

"I had nothing to do with it! I haven't said a word about it, and you've been sitting right there the whole time," Rodimus said with a snort.. "You are getting paranoid. It is just obvious you and Marissa have a lot to work out. Now...to quote you, 'quit stalling and answer.'"

Magnus glared at his friend. Then he relented. "We've talked about it. I...I would like our relationship to go on if it can. I know that will cause a lot of complications Optimus." The City Commander's voice broke just a bit, and he swallowed convulsively.

Optimus shook his head. "If we can get you through the morphing process safely, I don't have any objections Ultra Magnus. A year ago, I might have protested, but the changes in you are profound and healthy, and obviously my son's twin has found a way to make such a union work. I'm sure he has lots of advice on the subject."

"Oh, tons of it," Rodimus said with a grin, convincing Magnus even further that Rodimus had somehow set him up.

X

X

X

When they got back to Carly's house the usual gaggle was scattered hither and yon. Arcee and Springer were making the most of the pool. Foul Play was pretending to be asleep in a lounge-chair by the water. Carly was playing with Danny on the living-room floor, and Spike was updating his newest ledger on the couch next to them. Marissa sat on the couch staring blankly at the TV.

Lancer met them at the door and gave her mate a brief, congratulatory hug.

"Mission accomplished Rodimus?" Magnus growled. He had pestered Rodimus to admit being a manipulative bastard the whole way home to no avail.

"Absolutely. Foul Play needs some provisions made for her," Rodimus grinned.

"You are deceitful," Magnus grumbled.

"Hey...where's Hot Rod?" Rodimus asked.

Lancer made an odd face - part sympathy, part amusement.

"Oh...this bodes ill," Rodimus said, wondering why she didn't just tell him.

Lancer pointed out the kitchen window. Magnus and Rodi looked automatically and saw nothing in the back yard.

"Where is he?" Magnus asked, confused.

Lancer merely stared at her mate who's eyes widened in dawning realization.

"Oh...is he up the oak tree?" Rodi snickered.

Lancer laughed. "Oh God! It's not funny! He's really sad Love! It's just that he's doing the Prime Climb and I can't stop giggling about it."

"That's not very nice, Lancer," Carly said from the floor.

"I know! I can't help it. This one's the same. If he can't leave skid marks somewhere then he finds something to climb. I think he learned it from his partner," the mutant grinned guiltily.

"Sometimes a guy just needs some time to himself to think," Rodimus said, a touch defensively.

"He's not by himself," Spike informed Rodimus. "That tree is infested with squirrels."

"He should fit in just fine then," Rodimus said.

Lancer hit him. "Mean! Go talk to him!"

"Love! You know what's wrong with him...there's not much I can sa..."

"Go!" Lancer growled.

Rodi sighed, and rolled his eyes. "If I ever lose my job, I can always get myself a therapy practice...or maybe a talk show." He made a face at his mate, who was standing with one hand on her hip, the other pointing towards the back door. "I'll bring you back some acorns Spike," he complained, and headed out back.

Climbing the tree was easy for the assassin, but he couldn't go quite as high as his smaller twin, who looked at him resentfully with tear filled eyes. The younger bot wiped his face and turned away quickly, although he didn't hold much hope that he fooled Rodi at all. Hot Rod perched uncomfortably in the intersection of two fairly small branches. Rodimus settled for a somewhat larger limb a few feet down.

"Go away," Hot Rod said.

"Sorry kid. My mate sent me, and I'm a dead man if I go back too soon," Rodimus explained. "I'm supposed to talk to you."

"You just did. Go away," Hot Rod said.

Rodimus sighed. "I'm sorry Hot Rod. I know how hard this is for you."

Hot Rod opened his mouth to protest and then remembered. "Lancer left you too. I forgot. Rodimus...I think I might be in love with Foul Play."

"Um...like duh, Hot Rod," Rodimus answered with a sad smile.

"What am I going to do? I can't convince her to stay! She's afraid of the Autobots and really afraid of my parents, even though they said she could stay."

"I know."

"What do I do about it?" Hot Rod cried.

"You make sure you tell her exactly how you feel about her, about the two of you, and what it will be like for you if she goes," Rodi said.

"That's it? No intricate strategy? No sneaky tricks?" Hot Rod asked accusingly.

"If you are resorting to sneaky tricks with your mate something is wrong Hot Rod," Rodimus said. "You tell her, and then you let her go. It is her life, and her decision. You just need to make sure she has all the information you can give her to make that decision well."

"Is that what you did with Lancer?" Hot Rod asked.

"It is easier for us. I didn't need to say it. She knew," Rodimus whispered. There was a bit of scrambling over their heads.

"She left you anyway," Hot Rod sniffed.

"Yes," Rodimus answered.

"Obviously your plan didn't work," Hot Rod sneered.

"It wasn't a plan. I never tried to make her stay," Rodimus whispered.

"Even though you knew you'd miss her?" Hot Rod asked incredulously.

"Even though I knew she planned a suicide mission and that her death might kill me too," Rodimus told him. "Even though she was breaking my heart. Even though the fact she was leaving me hurt worse than anything the Jabez ever did to me."

"You make no sense to me," Hot Rod growled. The scrambling overhead got louder and closer.

"Some battles are wrong to fight," Rodi said. "I know you always want to do something...to fix things....but if I had tried to coerce her. Hot Rod, she would never have forgiven me, and she would have left anyway. If Foul Play stays with you, it has to be because she made that choice. Foul Play's fragile right now; it would be very, very easy for you to make up her mind for her. If you do that sooner or later she will resent you for it. Some day when she's used to standing up for herself and making her own decisions, she may even come to hate you for taking the most important one of her life away from her, even if it turns out to be the choice she would have made anyway."

Hot Rod scrunched down in his fork, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked rebellious. "I don't like surrendering."

"It's not a surrender. It's the only chance you've got. Don't blow it," Rodimus told him. From above them, an irate rodent hopped down from the high reaches of the tree to lean over them and eye them suspiciously. Rodi grinned and the squirrel cussed him out. It's vigorous scolding was joined by several others from higher in the branches. "We are out numbered," Rodimus told his twin. He caught an acorn just before it hit his forehead, "and we're under attack!"

"Hey!" Hot Rod cried, taking a solid crack on the skull from above. "We aren't bothering you Fuzzy!"

Raucous chittering and scrambling contradicted his statement.

"Apparently we are," Rodimus snickered. The foremost seething rodent leaned way out over its branch to harass him - its tail pin-wheeling behind it like it was trying to take flight. "You are very fierce and impressive," Rodimus told it seriously. "I am terrified of you."

Hot Rod couldn't help himself. He laughed.

Rodimus, never taking his eyes off of his "opponent" grinned. "Gotcha Little Brother," he said. He ducked one acorn and caught yet another.

"Did you really just let her go?" Hot Rod asked.

"Actually, I fought a pack of Autobots, including Optimus, to help her escape Cybertron," Rodimus said, all trace of amusement gone. He made no effort to hide how sad he still was. "I wanted her with me...but not in chains. How could I put her in chains Hot Rod? My Lady Assassin? She'd fight that to the death just on principle."

Hot Rod met his twin's eyes. "F..Foul Play...will too...won't she?"

"Underneath all that insecurity she's an awful lot like Lancer, especially when Lancer was younger," Rodimus muttered.

"Ow!" Hot Rod said, rubbing the back of his head. "Quit it you little fuzzy rascals, or I'm gonna reprogram the sprinklers to target you too! Let's see you dig holes in Spike's yard then! OW! Quit it!"

"You might try, I dunno, ducking?" Rodimus suggested mildly.

"Asshole. You don't have to be smug about being right all the time," Hot Rod growled.

"Am not," Rodimus said.

"Mostly!"

"Whatever," Rodimus groaned. "If I'm so damned right are you coming down or do I need to call in anti-rodent reinforcements?"

"Ow! Retreat!" Hot Rod cried.

They were followed by a triumphant mob all the way down the tree.

Once back to the house, Rodimus tossed Spike a handful on acorns and pushed his twin towards the back door.

"Go!"

"But I haven't thought about what I want to say!" Hot Rod protested.

"Precisely. Do it now so what you say is what you mean and not some shit you've edited down to meaninglessness or muddied past all recognition."

"But!"

"GO!" Rodimus said, pointing with almost the same pose his mate had used on him earlier.

Hot Rod went, glanced over his shoulder, saw Rodimus watching his every step, and slumped at the shoulders.

Rodimus watched his twin go up to Foul Play, casting a shadow over her and earning an irritated glare from the Con. Hot Rod, stood over her, head cocked to one side, and the irritated look fell into worry and sadness. Hot Rod took both of Foul Play's hands and led her up and away from the others. Glancing back at the window, Hot Rod found his staring twin's eyes...and stuck his tongue out at him.

Rodimus scowled until they were out of sight and then chuckled. Lancer snuck up behind him and bit him playfully on the biceps.

"OK you two," Magnus growled from the living-room. He had an arm around a slightly teary Marissa who was snuggled up against him. "Quit the fore-play and come in here and give us some pointers."

"Pointers?" Rodimus asked. "I thought you said I was deceitful."

"You are deceitful," Magnus said. "But in a good way."

X

X

X

Two days later found them all back at Metroplex, trying to work out whether to be subdued or excited, thrilled or devastated.

Rodimus and Lancer's teleporter was up and functional...at least to the point objects sent across the room made it in one, untwisted piece. Whether the coordinates for the recall button were valid was something they'd have to test in person. They decided, urgent as their need to get home was, that they would stay long enough to see their house-mates from hell back to Autobot/Decepticon form.

None of them talked about how scared they were.

If it didn't work, they'd die.

If it did, the agonies, confusions, and glories of the last year might be over for good.

No more pizza. Carly had fed them like she never had before - each of them got two large pizzas all to themselves the night before. Springer had hugged her and promised eternal loyalty. Magnus ate his down to the crumbs. Hot Rod only picked at his, eating two slices and all the pepperoni off the others. Now he was sorry, but it was too late.

Even Ratchet seemed nervous as they tweaked the equipment one last time. The chamber was large and hexagonal...based on Rodi's description of his own morphing chamber. The scientists didn't know if the shape meant anything or not, but just in case.... As with Rodi's chamber, there was a floor to ceiling transparent door.

Optimus paced, Magnus paced. Hot Rod stood still, but his right leg twitched intermittently. He kept his eye on Foul Play but didn't approach her. Springer yelled at all of them to quit moving around as they were making him nervous which led to Arcee whispering in his ear to remind him that he really shouldn't talk to Prime that way. Foul Play stood, head down, a bit apart from the rest, and didn't seem to blink or breath. Marissa waited, as still and upright as if at attention and under inspection.

Lancer hopped up on an Autobot sized armrest and leaned calmly on Rodimus who was lounging there too. They waited there next to Elita who was doing a good job appearing serene, even if she did keep inspecting her son from across the room. Spike and Carly climbed up on the same chair as the assassins, but they sat on the seat.

"I'm only doing this because I'm worried Prime will step on us," Spike explained as he awkwardly helped his wife up. He was a bit embarrassed after Lancer and Rodi made it look so damned easy. Carly looked embarrassed too.

"Allergies," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Been going around," Rodimus said completely neutrally.

"Go with that," Carly snarled. He merely blinked at her, innocence personified.

"Well we're ready," Wheeljack informed them. "Who's first?"

"I am," Magnus and Hot Rod said at the same time. They glared at each other.

"I'm the officer," Magnus growled.

"Right. I'm more expendable," Hot Rod threw back at him. Elita looked like she might say something to that, but she held her peace. Foul Play's hung head snapped up.

"Don't be stupid," Magnus responded. "I'm going first and that final. Back off Hot Rod. That's an order."

Hot Rod didn't answer, but he glared defiantly at his uncle. Magnus couldn't believe his audacity and a real staring contest got underway. While they stood there, chests out and sizing each other up like wolves, Foul Play walked right past both of them and into the chamber.

"I'm the only expendable one around here," she said, nodding at Wheeljack.

"NO!" Hot Rod yelled, but the doors sealed. The young Autobot pounded on the glass and then froze. She was smiling...really smiling. And Wheeljack threw the power on. Her wistful smile at him changed almost at once into a grimace of real pain. Energy from the capsule poured into her. All Hot Rod could think of was Lancer convulsing on the floor with power like that coursing through her body. His brain shut off before he got to the "Foul Play might die" part and he just went berserk. His feet joined his fists as he attacked the capsule.

Magnus was momentarily stunned out of his wits, but after a few heartbeats he realized Hot Rod was beating his hands bloody and that Foul Play probably wouldn't benefit from a broken chamber. Before anyone else in the room could react, Magnus simply ran up to Hot Rod and grabbed him about the waist, dragging him out of arm's reach of the capsule. Incredibly the younger Bot kept right at it with his feet until Magnus got him back. Then Hot Rod fought Magnus.

From within the capsule, Foul Play's intense physical pain was usurped by an emotional euphoria. Hot Rod was fighting Magnus! Magnus! It laid one, overwhelming doubt to rest. Anyone who would take on the City Commander was obviously really committed. He loved her! If taking on Ultra Magnus wasn't proof nothing was! It was like a balm on her soul. Smiling again, she passed out.

Watching the struggle calmly from their chair Lancer sent to her mate, Should we interfere?

Nah. Mags has got him, Rodimus sent.

All of my training was obviously for nothing, Lancer sent back sadly. He's all over the place.

He's extremely upset Love, Rodimus replied sadly.

That's when it should kick in the most! Lancer insisted.

Well...that was a good move, Rodimus noted. He caught Magnus in the ribs there. I think he's calming down enough to think!

This seemed to be true, for suddenly Hot Rod suddenly focused his attacks on his captor rather than blindly flailing towards the chamber. He scored a couple of solid blows on his surprised uncle and Lancer was gearing up to zap the boy's nervous system when the City Commander finally had enough.

"HOT ROD! STAND DOWN!" Magnus ordered in that reverberating bellow he saved for major trouble.

Hot Rod, who had been just about to take a huge bite out of Magnus' forearm, froze in place on sheer instinct.

"It's too late!" Magnus whispered in his ear. "If you damage the capsule now you'll kill her for sure." The City Commander felt the body in his arms go limp.

The entire incident lasted less than a minute and a half and most of the room was still in stunned mode. Elita was finally pretty confident that Hot Rod at least was serious about Foul Play. Optimus was merely floored by his happy-go-lucky son's sudden display of temper. It was a side of his child he had yet to witness.

Ratchet on the other hand, completely ignored the whole crazy scene and had his eyes glued on Foul Play's life signs on the monitors. None of them could actually see her any more through the power field.

No one but Lancer.

"Her life signs are erratic," Ratchet stated to Wheeljack.

"She's morphing now," Lancer said. "If she makes it through the change she'll stabilize."

Hot Rod's head whirled around. He was still in Magnus' grasp which had become part supportive embrace, part just-in-case restraint. "You can see her?!" Hot Rod demanded.

Lancer nodded but didn't take her eyes off of Foul Play to look at him. Rodimus did instead and gave his twin a faint, so-far so-good smile and a shrug.

Hot Rod wrenched his unhelpful stare from the chamber and watched Lancer's face instead. Through the next, long long minutes he studied her for signs of trouble or hope.

Knowing this, she kept her emotions as neutral as she could. Everything seemed about like she expected, but it was never easy watching anyone you cared about basically melting from one form to another, even if they were unconscious.

The entire process, slowed down on Rodi's advice, took about eight minutes total. Hot Rod was wrung and pale by the time Wheeljack turned the power down.

Of course they all knew why they were there, but it was still something of a shock when the medics pulled a black and purple Transformer with a Decepticon symbol on her shoulder out of the chamber. Hot Rod's eyes followed as the medics placed her on an exam table and muttered over her. Her body seemed so alien to him - he'd hardly known her before, even as an opponent. The fear she might leave him, one way or another, gripped him again. Magnus felt his nephew's body temperature drop perceptibly, and reinstated his embrace, afraid Hot Rod might collapse.

Seeing the cold gladiator supporting their son that way told Optimus and Elita more about the depth of change their people had gone through than any warnings of Rodi's ever could. They were grateful he was there to help Hot Rod through this. They were grateful Magnus had healed enough himself to be able to help at all. When they'd first been made human, Magnus had nearly no emotional contact with himself, let alone anyone else.

X

X

X

The medical staff professionally took their time - a fact which was even driving Elita up a wall by the time they were ready to pronounce Foul Play out of danger.

"She's going to be just fine," Ratchet said, turning to speak to Hot Rod directly. Technically, he should have reported to Optimus, but Ratchet knew better. Hot Rod did sag a bit, but he didn't collapse as Magnus feared, and he nodded back at Ratchet in thanks.

"I'm next," Magnus said to his nephew. Hot Rod was too dazed to argue. He nodded again.

Magnus carefully avoided looking at Marissa, who was pale as a ghost. On mutual agreement, they had said their personal "goodbyes" to each other before they left Carly's house. Neither wanted to make a scene here in front of everyone. "What do I do Wheeljack?"

"Well, you go into the chamber here..." Wheeljack said. "That's it. Maybe a prayer to Primus wouldn't hurt though."

Magnus' eyes narrowed. He knew Primus couldn't help either. Oh what the hell. He muttered things to himself as he marched into the chamber...not prayers exactly. Threats more like. Stuff about how if the universe was so unkind that it would give him something to lose for the sheer thrill of watching him lose it, then the universe would answer for it slowly and painfully indeed. He looked around the large chamber of hexagonal tiles and then turned to face what he might be losing.

Magnus met Marissa's eyes just as Lancer was hopping off the armrest. The mutant hung back a bit, respectfully letting Marissa and Magnus have this moment. Lancer remembered this moment. She remembered Rodimus scarred and scared, stepping into a chamber much like this. She remembered meeting his eyes and finding all the love she needed...and feared so much.

It was the last time she ever expected to look into those eyes - and the pain still lingered even as he landed lightly behind her.

Lancer studied Magnus' face for a moment. Rodimus had worn a similar look - without the hope. No wonder Optimus had figured things out. He'd have to be Sludge to miss that expression. Hmmph. Had her face looked like Marissa's? Pale, tense, and obviously greedy for every last microsecond of Magnus' human face? Probably.

Wheeljack threw whatever connections he needed to make and the light show started. Magnus' last view was of Lancer throwing her arm around Marissa and hugging her close. Rodi wrapped his arms around both of them, but he watched Magnus.

"At least she has friends with her," Magnus thought through his agony. Then, conveniently, he passed out.

A few moments later they dragged his inert form out of the chamber. The entire room gasped with shock, except the assassins.

Magnus was himself again, but instead of his usual midnight, bone, and hematite he was deep red and navy blue. Quickly overcoming their surprise, the medical team lifted him (with difficulty) onto one of the four remaining examining tables.

Rodimus raised an eyebrow. "Well...that's...closer anyway. I guess getting laid has been good for the big lug."

His mate elbowed him. Marissa, over-wrought, really slugged him hard on the arm. Then she burst into tears. The two of them reinstated their supportive embrace. Rodimus smiled to himself. Cracking Marissa's unnatural calm had been the plan all along.

Ratchet examined Magnus carefully and cautiously pronounced him functional. If he'd hoped this news would settle Marissa's tears, he was disappointed. She sobbed until her breath started to hiccup.

Wheeljack shook his head and muttered to himself. "I've never had an invention that worked so well get such a poor reception."

Hot Rod was too worried about Foul Play to pay attention, so Springer gave Arcee a long, indecent kiss and went next. Arcee waited just long enough to hear Ratchet pronounce him fine before going in herself - sparing her mate a similar turn through the wringer. Hot Rod went last and when they pulled him out there were more gasps of surprise - mostly from his parents.

"He's taller!" Elita cried.

"Of course he's taller," Lancer snickered. "He's sixteen and an eating machine. All that pizza's got to go somewhere!" Even Marissa smiled a bit a that. She dried her eyes and tried to recollect some dignity.

They all waited and worried until one by one the patients came slowly back around.

Continued in Part L


	12. Chapter 12

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part L

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part L

Continued from Part K

"I'm never going to get used to this color scheme," Magnus grumbled to himself. "You quit smirking Rodimus. It could be worse. It could be yours!"

"I'm not going to argue about it," Rodimus said. "I think you look good. You still aren't as bright as your twin in my universe."

Magnus grunted assent and stomped towards Prime's office. Rodimus grimaced while his mate cussed into his mind. Magnus had learned a lot about walking quietly from her, and when he first stood up after being changed he had actually been doing pretty well. Now though he was worried and the "tromp of doom" reverberated down the halls of Metroplex for the first time in almost a year. Autobots around the base shuddered in fear before they even identified the noise.

Metroplex's omnipresent consciousness was pleased. "Welcome back Commander," the City-bot said. "It hasn't been the same without you."

Magnus grunted a distracted thanks back to the living fortress and continued storming towards Prime's private office.

"It will be all right," Rodimus said quietly.

"I was just thinking that if she goes through with it, then we'll need to give Hot Rod my old paint job. He's trying to pull a you and hide it, but I am really worried he's going to have an emotional meltdown," Magnus said.

Rodimus smiled and said nothing.

"You are annoyingly nonchalant about this," Magnus told him.

"It'll be alright," Rodimus said again.

"You don't think she'll go through with it either do you?"

"Nope," Rodimus said.

"She's gonna make us go through all these hoops first though," Magnus snarled.

"Yup," Rodimus agreed.

"There's going to be a big fight over this," Magnus sighed.

"You up to it?" Rodimus asked. They arrived at Prime's door.

"The medics swear we are fully functional. I know you told us to expect this...disconnected feeling, but I'm still getting used to it. However, I suppose I am as 'up to it' as can be expected." He knocked on Optimus' office door.

Optimus was sitting in the dark when he let them in. "Any luck?" he asked hopefully.

"Nada and zippo," Rodimus told him.

"Joy," Optimus said, pressing his fingertips to his temples. "You couldn't talk her out of it then?"

"Even Elita couldn't talk her out of it Optimus," Rodi laughed, "and you know it is very hard to withstand the pink bull-dozer. Foul Play is set on going back to the Decepticons."

"Pink bulldozer?" Magnus snorted.

Optimus merely groaned. "She is my weapon of last resort. If she can't convince Foul Play to stay.... I think I'm about to make a call which will break my son's heart and get Foul Play killed. He'll never forgive me if something happens to her."

"Don't worry so much. He knows he has to let her go," Rodimus said.

"I still can't imagine why she'd want to," Optimus complained. He really didn't want to do this.

"The devil you know," Rodimus said lightly. "She's at least familiar with them and knows her place among them...or so she thinks."

"You don't think there's the slightest chance she'll go through with it, do you?"

"Heh...deja vu," Rodimus said. He grinned at Optimus.

"Magnus, we had better be well armed and ready for anything," Optimus said grimly.

"That goes without saying Prime," Magnus said. "You might as well get on with it."

Optimus glared at his half-brother and his son's ever so relaxed twin. Op wondered how he ended up having to do this when the two of them were the officers on the scene who should have prevented the whole mess. All of a sudden the "Till all are one," prophesy seemed like a great big pain in the diodes.

Magnus stood like an immovable statue. He would wait there until Optimus made the call or the end of time, whichever came first. Rodimus , on the other hand leaned on the wall with his arms folded and smirked as though he were savoring every minute of Optimus discomfiture. Optimus scowled at both of them, straightened firmly, and activated a comm line he had only used twice in his career.

Optimus contacted Decepticon headquarters.

People on all sides of this dirty little civil war would have been appalled, but the truth was the opposing commanders both knew exactly how to get in touch with each other. Megatron's line to Optimus connected to his office. Optimus' line to Megatron connected right in the middle of Decepticon Central Command...and unfortunately Megatron was not in the command center.

It was Starscream's watch.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Starscream chuckled.

"I need to speak to Megatron, Starscream," Optimus said calmly.

"Whatever for? You can give me your surrender just as easily," Starscream informed him.

Behind Optimus' com screen where Starscream couldn't see them, Magnus clenched his fists, and Rodimus wrung the neck on an imaginary opponent. Optimus vowed not to be distracted by any of them.

"I need to speak to Megatron," Optimus repeated.

"What's the magic word?" Starscream laughed.

Optimus turned optics up to the heavens and asked Primus for patience. "Please," he said.

"What do you want to talk to him about?" Starscream demanded.

"I will tell HIM when he arrives," Optimus said.

"You go Op," Rodimus mouthed at him.

"Megatron is not available," Starscream informed him. "He's having his chassis polished and can't be bothered with insignificant distractions."

Optimus watched Rodimus go back to choking and then punching the air and thought a few things about distractions. Magnus had both hands over his mouth.

His temper started to fray a bit. "Starscream. Get Megatron."

"Make me!" Starscream laughed shrilly.

Optimus was just about to really get nasty when his precise wish came true unexpectedly.

A large hand appeared from somewhere, gripped the back of Starscream's head, and smashed his face right down onto the console. The purple arm attached to the hand straightened and held. Whoever owned the arm was obviously leaning his full weight right onto Starscream's head. Starscream's arms flailed uselessly and muffled protests came frantically over the com line.

An expressionless face appeared on the view-screen. "Optimus Prime," the face intoned.

"OO...Cyclonus!" Rodimus mouthed. "Better!"

Optimus repeated his request to speak to Megatron. Cyclonus nodded, and told someone off-screen to contact Megatron immediately. The solemn Decepticon didn't release Starscream or even appear to notice the Second's attempts to escape.

"Megatron will be here momentarily Optimus Prime."

"Thank you...Cyclonus is it?" Optimus said. He tried to ignore Rodimus flawlessly pantomiming Cyclonus' expression and mannerisms, even though Rodimus couldn't see the Decepticon.

"You're intelligence gathering is impressive," Cyclonus responded. "I thought my name was still unknown to you. Then again, you have not stood so long against us by being a fool, unlike this piece of slag."

Optimus was not about to admit that his information came from an alternate dimensional traveling clown who was still mimicking Cyclonus. Just as he was beginning to crack and start laughing about it, Optimus and Starscream were saved by Megatron's appearance in the Command Center.

"Cyclonus," Megatron ordered, "What is the meaning of this?"

"We have received a call from our honored opponent Lord Megatron," Cyclonus rumbled calmly. "Starscream did not see fit to inform you so I felt I should ask him to reconsider."

Megatron was torn between fury at this news and grim glee that his Second/rival was being handled so deftly.

"It is good to see you have things well in hand Cyclonus," Megatron remarked neutrally. "Release him." Cyclonus complied instantly and stood at attention, hands clasped behind his back. Rodimus did the same and Optimus' stoic City Commander sank to the floor, both hands still over his mouth. Starscream looked up gratefully for a second, only to have Megatron's hand slam his face back down.

Optimus coughed; ridiculous for an Autobot but there it was.

Megatron looked long and hard at his opponent. He liked to think he knew Optimus extremely well after so many years of locking horns. Right now Optimus seemed... distracted.

"What is it Optimus Prime?" Megatron asked.

Optimus straightened and faced his enemy. "I must speak to you about one of your own. She has been in our custody for most of the last year, Megatron."

"One of MY Decepticons?" Megatron asked incredulously. None of his people were suspected of being captured.

"I speak of Foul Play, Megatron."

Megatron paused and looked blank for a long moment. "Oh...that little femme jet. We assumed she was killed during the explosion at the human lab. Why have you kept her prisoner so long? That's not like you Optimus Prime."

"Under the circumstances we could not have returned her to you. An accident at the lab caused her and a few of my people to be changed into humans. We have only just found a way to change them back. She would like to return to your ranks."

"One of my warriors? A filthy human?! Surely you can't expect me to believe such a thing?" Megatron cried. The Decepticon leader was again confused by Optimus' reaction. Prime wasn't looking at the screen, but somewhere behind it. The Autobot sighed raggedly.

"Megatron, do you really think I would contact you for anything if I wasn't serious?" Optimus asked flatly. His voice was only too even.

Megatron considered that. If there was one thing he could count on, it was Optimus Prime and his incredible consistency. Megatron knew he could trust his worst enemy a lot further than his own second-in-command. Prime wouldn't call for no reason. Prime wouldn't call to trick them. On the other hand it made complete sense that Optimus would have taken in a Decepticon warrior that needed help. Stupid Autobot. Foul Play wasn't important. They hadn't even sent back a search party for her when she hadn't turned up after the battle...and this idiot had obviously spent an entire year of effort and resources taking care of her.

A year...this gave Megatron pause. They had noticed a few Autobots disappeared around that same time too. Prime's son...that annoying triple changer...the pink femme...and Ultra Magnus. The others Megatron wasn't too concerned about, although he had been privately hopeful the loss of his son would somehow crack Optimus, but Magnus....

Megatron really hoped Magnus was gone for good. He would never know the City Commander was currently fighting with all his strength to keep from laughing at Rodimus' dead-on impression of Megatron's pompous posturing. If Megatron could have seen Magnus it might have ended the war right there by giving the Decepticon leader a fatal over-load.

What Megatron could see was that Optimus was now staring at the screen exclusively and was holding his hand up to the side of his face as if blocking a bright light.

"Well?" Optimus prompted.

Megatron took a moment to remember the initial question. "No. No Optimus Prime, I have never known you to contact me without reason. We should meet and do a prisoner exchange."

"You don't have any Autobot prisoners to exchange, Megatron," Optimus pointed out.

"We could arrange for some," Cyclonus informed him.

Optimus stared at the grave Decepticon. He gave Optimus the surges and Prime could sense the 'Con meant exactly what he said.

Optimus hurried to deflect that line of conversation. "It doesn't matter. Foul Play is not really a prisoner. She is free to go. Just tell us when and where you want to meet."

They hammered out a place and time with little difficulty...an abandoned Air Force base south of Metroplex's current location, the next day, at sunrise.

X

"I am going to kill both of you!" Optimus decreed.

The laughing hyenas only laughed more.

"Magnus! I'm going to throw you in detention!" Optimus raged.

"Before or after you kill him?" Rodimus asked brightly.

"I didn't do anything!" Magnus protested. "It's all his fault!"

"Magnus! I count on you to be...to be.." Optimus started.

"To be a complete stick-in-the-mud?" Rodimus helped. "To be an anal, unvarying bastard? To be the universe's ultimate straight man? To be..."

"That's enough Asshole," Magnus growled.

Optimus groaned. "Something like that! As for you," Optimus turned on Rodi, then paused. Rodimus wasn't really his to discipline but... "You are a Prime! Surely you know how important that call was! You wouldn't treat your partner that way! .... Would you?"

Rodimus snorted. "All the time! Consider it a challenge for your diplomatic ability to keep a neutral expression under extreme duress. It's training. Lancer tests our reflexes and I test your ability to keep a straight face!"

This notion sent Magnus over the edge again. Only Rodimus could justify being a trouble-maker this way.

Optimus must have been thinking something similar, because he finally cracked and laughed too.

X

X

X

The opposing sides lined up on either side of the landing field. Neither had left too many warriors behind it seemed. Optimus had gone for over-kill and found that made their forces only about equal to what Megatron had brought...nearly fifty warriors and two combiner groups. Did Megatron REALLY think he need the Constructicons and the Predicons for a simple prisoner exchange?

Of course, Prime had felt the need to bring along the Arial and Protectobots, so maybe he shouldn't ask too many questions. The Decepticon line muttered and shifted. Optimus thought they seemed... annoyed about being here. The undisciplined muttering got louder until a single laser blast ran along the front edge of the 'Con line.

The Autobots jumped and reached for weapons, but it was immediately clear the shot had not been aimed at them.

Cyclonus had singed the paint off of anyone who wasn't standing straight and the Decepticon line was suddenly still and even enough to survey with.

"That was effective," Magnus muttered. "Maybe I should try that some time."

"That one means business," Optimus said grimly.

"Told you," Rodimus said. Optimus looked at the assassin and sighed. It was hard to take what Rodi said too seriously after yesterday and today wasn't helping. The alternate dimensional assassin Prime had insisted on joining them in human form - on Hot Rod's shoulder. Now he perched there like a black and red parrot, refusing to move no matter how much Hot Rod complained or tried to make him uncomfortable.

Prime's son was in no mood for company today and he was doing a lot of barking at people. Optimus suspected part of Rodi's plan was to keep his twin from actually biting anyone, especially Foul Play.

Small chance of that anyway. The slender Decepticon wouldn't go anywhere near Hot Rod.

The two sides sized each other up. Magnus' appearance next to Prime almost set the Decepticon line off again but Cyclonus raised his weapon and they grew still.  
Neither side seemed to know how to proceed.

Finally Megatron grew impatient. He was eager to repossess this femme to discover what she had learned in a hidden year with their foes. He was very unhappy to see Magnus back but maybe she had learned something of the City Commander or the others that he could exploit. He didn't know where Foul Play stood on the Autobots who had helped her and he didn't care. He was pretty sure the Autobots would have some emotional ties to her, even if she didn't reciprocate. It was part of what made them weak. They couldn't help themselves.

He stepped forward and motioned for his lieutenants to follow him. The three of them brazenly broke from the rest. It should have been a risky move, but Megatron knew with complete certainty that Optimus would never exploit it. Starscream gulped but his pride wouldn't let him argue. Cyclonus showed the same amount of emotion as always - none.

Foul Play saw them coming and knew it was time. She seemed to crumple in on herself for a moment - shoulders drawn in, head down. Then she straightened and resolutely strode out onto the landing field.

The Con line remained quiet, but contempt and annoyance could be seen on nearly every face.

Behind Optimus and Magnus, Elita stood next to Hot Rod listening to a conversation that would have been funny in other circumstances.

"Let her go," Rodimus said.

"But...!" Hot Rod started.

"You sit on that. Let her go," Rodimus repeated.

"They all look so...so mean!" Hot Rod whined.

"They ain't pretty, that's for sure," Rodimus agreed, "but if you don't keep that leg still it's going to fly off."

"They are going to kill her! Don't you see that? The Predicons are looking at her like she's fresh meat."

"They're looking at her like you look at pizza," Springer said from behind them.

Rodimus threw the triple-changer a very nasty look. "Quit helping," he ordered. To his twin he repeated, "Let her go."

On the field Foul Play was taking ever smaller steps.

"Uh-oh," said Magnus. "She's wavering." He contacted his troops through inter-Autobot channels. "If she turns around, I want immediate covering fire on the Decepticon line!"

"If she goes they'll kill her!" Hot Rod was saying to his twin, "and if she turns around they'll kill her too!"

"Let her go," Rodimus said.

Hot Rod was starting to sound more and more desperate. "That's easy for you to say! Your mate ABSORBS laser fire and plays with it! She could survive out there and... and..and where is she anyway?"

Rodimus smirked at his twin.

"Oh..." Hot Rod said, his eyes widening.

Rodimus continued smiling, "You should know us better than that by now Hot Rod."

Elita saw relief on Hot Rod's face. "Is she out there?"

Rodimus winked at her. "She's cloaked. She's quiet. Foul Play doesn't know she's there, but if necessary she's got back up. Really Hot Rod, you should know we'd never let her go out there alone."

X

X

X

Foul Play walked ever more slowly. The Decepticon commander had stopped about mid-field and she was now most of the way to them. They got uglier with each step.

She paused, and did what she had sworn she would never do. She looked back. Without meaning to, she found Hot Rod through Magnus and Optimus. She saw him arguing with Rodi who was still perched firmly on his shoulder. Then she saw the others. Springer and Arcee looked worried. Magnus scanned the Decepticons warily, his hand not-quite hovering near his weapon. Elita watched Hot Rod intently and looked...sorry for her son. Foul Play caught that for the first time. His parents weren't celebrating her return to her people. They were sad for Hot Rod.

As for the rest of the Autobots...they seemed way more worried about the opposing line than her. Certainly there was no overt hostility aimed her way.

The same could not be said for the waiting Decepticons. They were glaring at her almost as much as their adversaries.

Except for the three in front. Starscream looked almost bored. Cyclonus neutral, and Megatron... Megatron looked at her like she was a big bowl of ice cream waiting to be devoured.

"What the hell am I doing?" the femme muttered to herself.

"I dunno," a familiar voice came out of thin air. "What Are you doing Foul Play?"

To Foul Play's credit, she didn't jump or turn towards the voice.

"I think I may be making a mistake," she said. "I was afraid the Autobots would beat up on me, but I KNOW those guys will."

"Can't argue with you there Hon, but you need to decide what you want to do," Lancer whispered. She was glad Soundwave wasn't on the field. Probably in charge back at Con headquarters.

Foul Play looked at Megatron. She looked back at Optimus Prime. She looked back at Megatron. "I feel stupid," she said.

There was an invisible chuckle from beside her. "Can't argue with you there either. Now, what are you going to do?"

Foul Play took a step back. Then another.

Megatron couldn't believe his optics. All this time and effort to retrieve this worthless little femme and now she thought she was just going to walk away from him?

"Take her," he said to Starscream.

Grinning, the sadistic lieutenant made a quick grab for Foul Play. The femme was well familiar with Starscream. As a jet herself she had been part of his jurisdiction before the accident. She'd seen a lot more of him than Megatron, who had never once acknowledged her existence. Starscream had though. It was his style to make sure everyone under his immediate command knew he could hurt them whenever he chose.

Quite simply, he terrified her then and he terrified her now.

Something strange though happened when he reached for her. Time seemed to move in slow motion, or at least Starscream seemed to. Instead of her usual frozen terror she thought, "Well that's a fairly crude move." Months of sparring with the others made her a bit...contemptuous of the brute way he just made a grab for her. Apparently he just expected her to stand there and wait for him to lay hands on her.

Foul Play was overwrought, but she was Lancer's student, and she knew Lancer was beside her watching and evaluating. She couldn't let her teacher down now could she? Foul Play moved.

She pushed off and up, and one slim, strong black leg lashed out in front of her. It caught Starscream straight on the chin and snapped his head back with an audible crack. If he'd been human his neck would have broken. As it was it temporarily cut the energon flow to his brain and knocked him straight out.

Megatron made no note of her strange assault other than fury she was defying him by not surrendering. No Decepticon, especially a insignificant little female, was going to assault one of his officers and make him look like a fool in front of his troops and the Autobots! He took aim with his fusion cannon to make an atom-sized example out of her when he felt his arm grabbed by some unseen force.

The pressure on his arm pulled him forward and off balance and then...twisted.

There was a sickening sound of rending metal and wires. Megatron couldn't make a sound over his pain and stared in shocked disbelief as his cannon arm was torn free of his body. It floated in mid-air, flipped around and came swinging at his face. There was an explosive crack in Megatron's head as his own hand came back to slap him and knock him down. The motion followed through to Cyclonus who also took a blow to the head. Stunned as he was, Cyclonus did manage to instinctively pull back to avoid part of the blow. He saw stars but didn't pass out.

Laser fire from both sides decorated the air all around them in a sparkling array of deadly color.

Foul Play turned to run and froze. The entire Autobot line had their guns out and trained on her. ...No. Not on her. On THEM! They were covering her!

"Don't worry about the lasers Girl!" Lancer's voice shouted at her. "I've got your back! Run!"

Foul Play ran. Not away. To.

Continued in Part M


	13. Chapter 13

Maelstrom Chapter 33  
Conversations in the Kitchen: Chapter 4 "Hoping you Like Me Too"

Part M

Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original **Maelstrom Comics** and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.

**Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes! This chapter has something for everyone. It has violence, sex, humor. It has Matrix issues, Jabez issues, and Decepticons. It has cannon-twisting history, ass kicking, and angst...duh.  
**

**  
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!  
**

Conversations in the Kitchen  
Chapter 4  
Part M

Continued from Part L

Magnus and Optimus gave the order to open fire the instant Starscream made a move for Foul Play. His fate and Megatron's fate barely registered with them as the whole Con line fired back. Elita saw though. Hot Rod did too. On Hot Rod's shoulder, Rodimus laughed.

"Oh I'm in love," he crowed. "It is so nice to see someone else get their arm ripped off for a change!"

They watched Foul Play hightailing it back to their side of the field through a fireworks display of laser fire. Many of the Cons were targeting her, but their shots mysteriously vanished as they neared her. She made a bee-line for Hot Rod and showed no signs of intending to slow down once she got there.

Cyclonus picked Megatron up and carried him behind the Con line. He left Starscream where he was.

Hot Rod laughed. Rodimus laughed, and flipped himself off of Hot Rod's shoulder before he got flattened between the kids. He morphed as he went down, landed prone, and cloaked before anyone but Hot Rod and Elita could see him. Foul Play got within a hundred feet and launched herself at Hot Rod, who caught her and fell to the ground with her.

They both giggled as though they were alone and safe, rather than in the middle of a fire-fight.

Elita heard the now invisible Rodimus talking to his invisible mate.

"That was brilliant Love," he told her.

"Thanks," Lancer's voice replied. "Shall we go have fun? I've never gotten to fight Cons before."

"Oo, this is true. Let's not waste an opportunity!" Rodimus said. "Elita, Lancer and I are going to go make trouble for the bad guys for a change."

"Hey!" Springer said. "What about us?"

"What about you?" Lancer growled slightly. "Or did all my time working with you go to waste?"

"Translation," Rodimus chuckled. "What are you idiots standing around for? Go!"

Hot Rod and Foul Play got up, still grinning stupidly at each other. For just a moment the four of them stood. Then Springer and Arcee transformed and Hot Rod and Foul Play took off running past the Autobot line. Magnus saw them go by, had a blank "what the?" moment, and then ran after them.

Optimus had a surreal notion he had better get used to this kind of insanity from his ex-human group as the lot of them charged the Cons without authorization.

It hardly mattered. Both lines were disintegrating into individual melees. The Predicons were the first from the Con side to cross the field to harry the Autobots. The jets took to the air and began strafing runs. Strangely, while their missiles did plenty of damage, none of the Decepticons had much luck with their lasers that day. The Arielbots took to the sky and made it an ugly dog-fight.

Starscream came to on the field with running feet, explosions and wild laser blasts all around him. His fury that the stupid femme had attacked him was only over-shadowed by embarrassment that she had succeeded! Both of those emotions were overshadowed by his terror at his current situation.

Motormaster ran past him, paying his fallen comrade no attention whatsoever. Starscream watched, incredulous, as the huge Decepticon suddenly tripped for no reason. He fell towards Starscream who needed all of his vaunted speed to keep from being scrunched.

Starscream kept his head down (in order to keep it!) and made to retreat back towards the Con side of the field. What he saw made him pause incredulously. Foul Play and Hot Rod were making short work of Shrapnel and Kickback. They fought as a team as if they had done so many times before. Springer and Arcee were also weaving their way through the Decepticon ranks. Arcee had always been agile, but Springer was more the sort to ignore blasts than dodge them. Now, nothing seemed to hit. And then there was Ultra Magnus. It looked to Starscream like someone had let loose a walking earthquake in their midst.

Starscream turned to target Foul Play. She wasn't looking his way and he felt sure he could slow her down but good with the null ray. He got her into his sights and...fell down. Shaking his head, the Decepticon tried to stand again. He felt a distinct pressure this time and fell again.

"Wha...what's happening?" he cried. Motormaster was trying to get up again a few feet away and got no further than Starscream.

"I can't get up!" the Combaticon complained.

"Neither can I!" Starscream answered shrilly. "Some invisible force is knocking me down. Maybe this place is haunted!"

They both heard a deep, masculine, evil chuckle. "Ah...Starscream...if anyone should know about ghosts..."

Motormaster jumped. Starscream whined.

"What are you?"

"I am the ghost of all the humans you've killed," the voice growled.

Motormaster and Starscream screamed.

X

X

X

Elsewhere on the battlefield Hot Rod was having fun. He and Foul Play were finding Lancer's techniques and their own native agility made them a seamless team. Adapting what they had learned as humans to their alternate modes wasn't hard at all and the two of them transformed back and forth smoothly to cover for each other and take down one foe after the next. It was glorious.

Magnus found himself all over the area. His time as a gladiator always helped him in skirmishes like this, but the refinement he'd undergone made dropping enemies stupidly easy...at least until he ran into Cyclonus. He caught up with the Con lieutenant just as the sleek purple flyer was getting done shooting Air Raid's tail fins into oblivion. The Aerialbot spun out of control and crashed, screaming into the sandy turf, leaving deep furrows on the field.

Magnus ran up to cover the fallen Bot from his pursuer. He fired both shoulder missiles at Cyclonus, forcing the Con to transform. Cyclonus landed lightly and the two circled each other warily. Magnus evaluated his opponent's movements carefully. The Con was agile, light on his feet, and graceful for a Transformer. Watching the other's optics Magnus had the unusual and unnerving feeling he was being evaluated the same way. Cyclonus' optics narrowed. As if on signal they launched at each other as one. It seemed to those that witnessed their first assault that they would simply collide into each other and slug it out, but at the last minute Cyclonus jumped high and Magnus slid-kicked low. Neither made contact.

Their looks of surprise could have been two sides of a mirror.

Magnus clamped his mouth shut. None of the Cons would dare say anything to Cyclonus, but Magnus could hear laughter. Rodimus. It was time for that guy to go home.

Cyclonus took advantage of his pause for annoyance and attacked again. This time Magnus waited for him and they did end up grappling. Testing each other's strength got them nowhere, and Magnus' gladiator tricks were smoothly met. The viper strike dodged, the leg-lock avoided and countered. Magnus was almost pleased. An opponent who didn't just fall down or run! Cyclonus was grinning and it wasn't pretty. He threw a volley of hand and foot strikes at Magnus that had the City Commander's mind reeling. Where had the Con learned those? Those were gladiator moves! He almost stopped evading blows to ask. Almost. He retreat a few steps, letting the Con get really rolling, and then pulled one of those annoying feints Rodimus had used successfully on him. Ducking under Cyclonus' jabbing arm, Magnus compressed his fingers and threw a painful knife strike into Cyclonus' armpit towards the joint. He hit so hard the arm actually pulled away from the joint, exposing wires and cables.

To his credit, Cyclonus rolled out of the hit, and didn't show the pain he must have been in at all. He took to the air and surveyed around him. Megatron was still out, Starscream was curled up into a ball on the field, leaving Cyclonus amazed his opinion of the Con could sink any lower. Motormaster was similarly nonplused, which did confuse Cyclonus a bit. The other Cons were getting hammered, mostly by the Autobots who were supposedly missing for the last year. Cyclonus figured they had been away for special training. The whole turned human thing made no sense at all, especially with Foul Play using moves he knew for sure none of the other Cons knew. The femme was a mystery to Cyclonus - he'd never met her, but Megatron had little to say about her, and Starscream's evaluations were less than flattering. Neither seemed to regard her as an asset, but Cyclonus wished the Cons they did value were as skilled as she seemed. Certainly she did more damage than you would expect for a femme her size.

He shook his head. Optimus Prime was quickly mopping up Predicons with Elita. It was time to sound a retreat. He signaled the others to follow and picked up Megatron, then withdrew, not really worried about who didn't manage to follow.

Lancer wandered her way through celebrating Autobots and found what she was looking for laying in the scrambled sand. She picked it up and de-cloaked, drawing gasps of surprise from some of the uninitiated Autobots. Slingshot even went so far as to shoot at her, but she didn't mind. The blast helped restore some of her energy.

Magnus snarled at the rest to stand down as she approached him and tossed him Megatron's arm and fusion cannon.

"Here. Something to remember me by," she said. "Maybe you can use it to decorate your office."

"Ew," Hot Rod said with a snicker. Then he sobered. "You guys are leaving...aren't you?"

"As soon as we get back to Carly's Little Brother," Rodimus told him.

X

X

X

There was a brief stop at Metroplex, during which they all got checked out as Rodimus had recommended. It was a good thing too, they all had minor wounds, but Hot Rod and Springer both had moderate leaks they were completely oblivious to which could have been dangerous untreated. Neither could even say what hurt them.

Magnus lingered behind for a few minutes after the others were done and ordered everyone out of Med-Bay so he could discuss things with Ratchet. When he came out, about fifteen minutes later, he was in human form and looking plenty pleased with himself.

This drew applause from the others, including Optimus and Elita. They had decided that a happy Magnus was going to be well worth the trouble and expense of setting up separate quarters.

It was a bitter sweet moment, and the group was oddly subdued as they made the trip to Carly's house under their own power for the first time in almost a year. Optimus and Elita accompanied them. Except for Magnus they took their own jets or wheels. Magnus rode in Rodi's cab with Lancer. Happy as they were not to be in Spike's mini-van, most of the gang was silent.

Hot Rod was the one exception.

"How will we know if you guys made it or not?" he asked over the comm.

"I don't think you will Hot Rod. If we can send a message back through then we'll do that, but I doubt it will work," Rodimus said sadly. He knew that not knowing would eat at his twin.

"You'll make it," Magnus said.

"Magnus! You aren't getting all optimistic on me are you?" Rodimus teased.

"Marissa and I are going to make it. I have reason to be optimistic. In your case however it's not optimism. You will make it because you two are like roaches and are therefore indestructible."

The Witwickies and Marissa met them in the driveway. When Magnus stepped out of Rodi's cab, Spike and Carly almost didn't notice - they were so used to seeing him that way, but Marissa, who hadn't been warned flew across the drive like she was jet-propelled and threw herself in Magnus' arms. She hugged him with arms and legs and he twirled her around.

They had decided to try and reverse the teleport as exactly as they could, so they tried to remember precisely where the visitors had landed during the fateful football game. After some debate they decided on a spot in the yard and exchanged goodbyes.

Optimus presented them with their restored belt, the files for parenting and First Aid's medical program, and a few precious unaltered Matrix stones. Rodimus slapped his twin's father on the back in thanks and shook his hand. He was a bit surprised when Optimus used the shake to pull him in for a quick, awkward hug. He wasn't surprised when Elita ignored his hand completely and crushed him in her arms.

She kissed him on the forehead and tried to get him to promise to behave.

"Nah, Elita. I can't spoil my streak now, can I?" he said.

Lancer donned her exo-suit so she could say goodbye as well. She was treated to similar awkward hugs from the senior couple and then she and her mate were over-whelmed by the younger gang.

"Bye guys," Arcee said simply, hugging them both.

Springer opened his mouth, tried, shut his mouth, tried again, and shook his head hopelessly.

"Don't hurt yourself," Rodimus said, grabbing the triple changer and giving him a final vile nuggie for the road. Springer punched him and they both felt satisfied with that.

Foul Play sobbed. "I've never lost a friend before," she told them. "I've never had any to lose."

"We'll always be your friends," Rodi told her. "No matter what."

"You stand up for yourself," Lancer told her. "You've already done it. Don't forget. And don't forget to keep your eye on your mate at all times. He bears close watching."

"You aren't very nice," Hot Rod said in a suspiciously low voice. Lancer laughed at him and kissed his cheek.

"Goodbye Ingrate," Rodimus said. "I won't tell you to be good, 'cause I know better. Make sure to keep your dad and your uncle on their toes. They're both getting complacent in their old age. Give them hell...and watch your back."

"Same to you Asshole," Hot Rod said. They high-fived each other.

Then Lancer closed down her suit and Rodimus morphed.

Spike shook their hands and wished them well, but Carly was too far gone for words. She sobbed and hugged them, Rodimus in particular. Then she handed Rodimus a video disk.

He looked at her in confusion.

Spike answered when Carly couldn't. "It's a lot of things. It's for both of you. Stuff we did together, things we all wanted to say. Everyone chipped in. It might even help you when you get home to your friends, so they know what you had to put up with here."

Carly sniffled. "You are to play that for the first time in front of your council. Make sure Spike is there."

"Sight unseen?" Rodimus asked incredulously. "Um...not likely Carly."

"You heard me," Carly whispered. She met his eyes unwaveringly. "Rodimus... please. It means a lot to me that you do this my way. It's important."

"Carly you can't expect me to just play this in front of my council, the Maelstrom crew, and Spike without watching it first!" Rodimus fought. There was simply no way that was happening.

She didn't say anything. She just stared at him with tears running down her face.

Rodimus shut his eyes. He wouldn't do it. He COULDN'T do it.

"OK fine," he said. Lancer's eyes about fell out of her head.

"Great Cybertron...." Magnus said. "He really can't say no to her. Marissa, does it count as being whipped if you don't have sex?"

Marissa hit him.

"I was just asking!" Magnus said, noting that Arcee had her hand on Springer's arm and was squeezing so hard the gears in her fingers were grinding slightly. Springer had one hand firmly over his own mouth.

Carly beamed. clearly relieved, and put Daniel in Rodi's hands. He smiled a bit tearfully at her and lifted the baby over his head. Then he hugged him close and seemed at a loss for words himself. Lancer embraced them both and smoothed Daniel's curls one last, futile time.

They gave the baby back and were immediately confronted by an EDC Captain and a City Commander. Marissa hugs turned out to be as rib bruising in this dimension as in their own.

"Thank you," she whispered to both of them. She had a million things to say, but that seemed to be all that worked right now.

Magnus ignored any possible repercussions and picked Lancer right off the ground. "I am sorry you're going. Anyone who can rip Megatron's arm off and smack him in the face with it is someone I want on my team!" he declared.

"Oh really, and my charming personality wasn't enough?" Lancer asked facetiously.

"Nope," Magnus said.

"Fair enough," Lancer replied. They grinned.

"I'm going to miss you too, Asshole. No one here dishes it out quite like you do," Magnus said, punching Rodi's fist with his own.

"You won't miss me at all," Rodimus said.

Magnus, who found such an admission hard to begin with, brindled at Rodi's contradiction.

"Why not?" he snapped. "I think of you as a friend!"

"That's right, and as a final act of friendship I left you some things in your office so that you won't miss me!" Rodimus grinned.

"My office...." Magnus said slowly, his eyes widening in horror.

"Time to go my Love," Lancer said.

"HEY!" Hot Rod cried. "If you did stuff in his office who do you think he's going to take it out on?"

"You," Rodimus said. "Keep that maneuverability up Little Brother!"

"OO..." Lancer said. "Here we go! Bye Guys! It's been fun!" She lit the crystal and waved as Magnus and Hot Rod both charged at them. The way she figured it, if she and Rodimus were going to die teleporting, they'd better be running for their lives.  
And then they were gone.

X

X

X

Afterward:

Ultra Magnus, in robot form again, entered his office with trepidation. It looked just as he left it.

"See? Nothing!" Hot Rod said, turning to head off down the hall.

"If it's nothing, you have nothing to worry about," Magnus intoned.

"I shouldn't have to worry anyway! I didn't do anything in your office Ultra Magnus!" Hot Rod insisted.

"You know how a good leader puts up with things for the good of his people?" Magnus asked.

"Uh-huh," Hot Rod said nervously.

"If there is a problem in here...someone is gonna suffer for it. Either you, or everyone in Metroplex. Including you," Magnus said.

Hot Rod sighed.

They turned on the lights.

Nothing.

They crossed the room slowly.

Nothing.

Magnus pulled out his chair and eyed it suspiciously for changes or weaknesses.

Nothing.

His drawers and possessions were undisturbed. Everything was exactly in order, down to the last millimeter.

Magnus shook his head. "He was just messing with my head. Everything is just like I left it."

Hot Rod smiled. It was easy to picture his twin trying to make Magnus paranoid for no reason.

Magnus heaved a huge sigh of relief and sat down in his chair.

The chair sprang to life - spinning swiftly in place. A disco ball and numerous other flashing lights in garish colors dropped from the ceiling. Cameras began broadcasting on every monitor in Metroplex. Confetti fell in copious quantities, coated every surface and filled every tiny crack in Magnus' things, and the Bee Gee's wailed "Staying Alive" all over the entire base. Magnus' wildly twirling chair kept perfect time, and Hot Rod ran for his life.


End file.
